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Last Updated: 3/22/08
Introduction
Breeding
My Wood Frogs - including lots of photos and videos
Web Sites
I will eventually move my other frog species pages to their own pages in this subdirectory but for now, I just moved the wood frogs since their section was getting large. It took a few hours just to redo this page (which involves rerouting other pages, photos, links, etc. as well as actually reading what I wrote years ago.).
To see my other frog species, go to the frog species page.
Rana sylvatica, the wood frog, is a frog that only spends time around water during breeding. They grow to about 2 to 3 inches. I bought a few tadpoles to add to the pond in 1997. In the summer of 1998, I thought I saw an adult but I had a 100% sure sighting in early July, 1999 of a full grown adult wood frog who posed for photos (he was too small for me to scan them in). I saw a young adult in the pond a few weeks later. They are brown, cute, and skittish. Wood frogs are diurnal (active during the day) but seem to call mostly at dusk. The males quack in early spring to breed. After breeding, adults may venture far from water in the woods. The wood frog is the only North American frog that breeds north of the Arctic Circle. They hibernate on land and can freeze solid in winter and live.
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In March, wood frogs are one of the earliest frogs to show up at ponds to lay their eggs. They may lay eggs when there is still some ice and snow around. They usually will come out on the first semi-warm (above 50 degrees F or so) day after a good rain. The males will find a pond, preferring one without fish, and start calling. The call is like the quack of a duck.. This attracts the females who are almost twice as large, at least while egg-laden. The couple will lay egg masses that are amazingly large for the size of the frogs. I have photos of wood frogs and their eggs in my section below as they breed in my 153 gallon pond most years.
I added about a dozen wood frog tadpoles to my then-new 1800 gallon pond.
This paragraph pertains to people in the United States. I do not know about other countries. A few people have asked me about buying wood frog eggs, tadpoles, or adults. The place I got mine from (I think it was just an individual) was gone a few years later. When I got those tadpoles, I was not aware of the details about species and legalities. I believe that it is illegal in most (if not all states) to buy, sell, or possess the eggs, tadpoles, or adults of native amphibians. Exceptions are made for bullfrogs and green frogs as they are regulated as fish. I believe interstate transport of native amphibians is also prohibited or restricted. Some states allow for the possession of one adult native frog of certain species. Be sure to check out the web site of your state's Department of Natural Resources (or Wildlife) for the rules that apply for you.
If you would like wood frogs in your pond, then you have a few options. If they are native to the area, then wait; they may come on their own. If not, then, if you can find a pond that is CLOSE to where you live with wood frog spawn and get the permission of the land owner, then you could move some eggs or tadpoles. Moving adults is not recommended. Introducing any frog to a location to which it is not native is also not recommended. Most frogs imprint on their birth pond location and tend to return there to breed. I absolutely do NOT recommend keeping wood frogs as confined indoor pets. Wood frogs spend most of their life hiding among trees. They will not be very happy in a small aquarium. If you find a wood frog, please let it live its natural life so it is free and able to breed. Amphibians have enough problems trying to survive.
No wood frog sightings as the babies were growing up.
In July, I saw one adult.
My wood frogs laid eggs in my 153 gallon pond on 3/12/00. The male called at dusk like a duck beginning on 3/9/00. Two ball egg masses of about 3 inches by 3 inches were laid floating on the surface among plants. Wood frogs reportedly will lay eggs while ice is still on the pond but we were having a warm spell. I never noticed any juveniles leaving the pond but the tadpoles slowly vanished over time.
I awaited the wood frogs' return in March of 2001 but it was not until two inches of rain fell that they showed up at dusk on 3/21/01. I took a flash light to find them. I saw a male and large female and at least one or two others (they were hiding under moving leaves) who were just sitting in my 50 gallon lotus tub.
The wood frogs did not show up in 2002 due to the worst drought in 100 years.
After a few years absence, finally, on the night of 3/21/03, I heard a strange noise. Not quite a quack, but a noise nonetheless. A flashlight revealed it was a wood frog!! You can read more about them in my April 2003 pond newsletter. On 3/23/03, an egg mass was in the 50 gallon lotus tub. I had to clean the tub that day as it was a cesspool after three years (lots of food for tadpoles I guess but lots of sources of fungus and other nasties too)! So, I set the eggs aside, cleaned it, and put them back. I covered them with vinyl-coated hardware cloth to keep predators off, added some hornwort for cover when they hatched, and will add fish food to feed them. The eggs started to hatch on 4/3/03! It took 12 days! Below are the photos I took of the eggs and frogs.
Photos of the wood frogs and eggs at my pond in 2003:
Wood frog eggs in dirty 50 gallon
lotus tub as laid, 3/23/03.
Wood frog eggs in a yellow bucket,
3/23/03.
Female wood frog in 153 gallon
pond, 3/23/03; the eggs are hers.
Wood frog eggs in cleaned 50 gallon
tub pond, protected from predators, close-up, 3/28/03.
Wood frog eggs in 50 gallon lotus tub pond,
from a distance, 3/28/03.
No wood frogs!
The wood frogs came back in record numbers in March 2005!!! On 3/23/05, they started to call. There was at least two of each sex, perhaps three of each! I am pretty sure there were at least 3 males and 1 female but as many as 3 of each. They laid half a dozen clumps of eggs over a few days in my 153 gallon pond. I cleaned it on 3/25/05, setting the eggs aside at the time. You can read about the cleaning on my 153 gallon pond cleaning page. I put one bunch in my 20 gallon tub pond which the raccoons later tore up. I hope to soon have lots of wood frog tadpoles!! You can read more about the wood frogs also in my April 2005 newsletter. The eggs began to hatch on 4/6/05 so it took two weeks mostly due to the low temperatures until recently. The wood frog tadpoles have good back legs and may leave soon as of 6/4/05 so it takes two months or more for them to change to adults. That is longer than I thought but certainly much shorter than green frogs (up to a year) and bullfrogs (up to 2 years).
Wood frog eggs in the 153 gallon
pond on 4/5/05, the day before they started to hatch.
Wood frog eggs being held in a
bucket on 3/25/05.
Male wood frog in the 50 gallon lotus
tub on 3/25/05.
The wood frogs came back on 3/12/06 when the temperature went into the 70's (degrees F). The morning of 3/14/06, the wood frogs were really making a lot of noise. I went over to the 153 gallon pond. There were something like 6 to 8 of them in there! I even saw an amplexing pair and a pile of eggs already. Since I needed to clean that pond in a few weeks, I moved three wads of eggs to my 20 gallon tub pond the next day and will move the tadpoles back to the 153 gallon after cleaning. It is really impossible to sift through newborn wood frogs when cleaning a pond. It may take up to two weeks for the eggs to hatch since it is getting cold again.
My mother told me an interesting story when I got home on 3/14/06. I had hoped to get a short movie of the wood frogs courting and calling but they were all hiding. The winds were gusting to 30 mph. It was no longer summer but horrific outside. Thousands of leaves blanketed the ponds. Anyway, my mother says that that morning, she was looking towards the 153 gallon pond where the half dozen wood frogs were having the time of their lives. Then, in a flash, a red-tailed hawk swooped a foot off the ground, grabbed a wood frog, flew up, and shredded it. I was not happy to hear that.
Update 6/17/06: The wood frog tadpoles, who are just under an inch long, now have legs and will be leaving soon so it takes about 3 months for them to get through the tadpole stage.
I cleaned out the 153 gallon pond on 3/30/06. You can read about it here in detail. I got some great photos and a video below from that day!
Video!
While the wood frogs were in the buckets during the 153 gallon pond cleaning on 3/30/06, several males started to call. This surprised me as they are very shy. After I put them all back into the 153 gallon pond, the males started calling again. I tried to get a few short videos with the digital camera. I uploaded one of the videos onto my amphibian video page. There was one amplexing occurring but it was a male wood frog on a poor green frog! You can see it at the end of the video. I am sure he thought he hit pay dirt with a really big egg-laden female!
Photos of wood frogs and their eggs from the 153 gallon pond cleaning on 3/30/06:
Wood frogs waiting in the
bucket.
Female wood frog sitting on
land.
Male wood frog in the water.
Wood frog eggs - view of the
entire bucket of wood frog eggs I set aside from the 20 gallon pond and then spread around into
the 20, 50, and 153 gallon ponds.
Wood frog eggs - view closer
in.
Wood frog eggs - close-up of a
few eggs so you can see the tadpole's heads.
The wood frogs starting calling after a day of rain on 3/15/07. Eggs should appear soon.
The morning of 3/23/07, there were three wood frog egg masses in my 153 gallon pond. They were calling like mad the night before. A few days later, they added a few more egg masses (five total).
They also laid a couple of batches in the 50 gallon tub pond which I cleaned on 3/25/07. For details, go here. Here are the photos relevant to the wood frogs from that day:
Two batches of wood frog eggs in the
bucket
Cleaned pond - the new fountain, two
batches of wood frog eggs, and can you see the green frog on the right?
Close up of wood frog eggs - once
the
pond was back together.
These photos are from the 3/29/07 cleaning of the 153 gallon
pond:
Wood frog eggs in one of the
former cat litter bucket. The photo is not very clear.
Wood frog - the wood frog hopped
into the pond after it was completely empty (before vacuuming) so I took photos and then moved
her to the 50 gallon tub pond so I would not harm her.
Wood frog - view of the frog from a
distance (the photo above is a close-up of this one).
Wood frog
Wood frog
Wood frog eggs back in the 153
gallon pond. You can see tiny air bubbles on them from the well water's gases coming out in
solution. The cleaning made about a 50% water change but it still causes this problem.
Wood frog eggs close-up of the next
photo showing the little tadpoles. You can see their little heads
Wood frog eggs
The wood frog eggs hatched on 4/3/07 in the 153 gallon pond and a few days later in the 50 gallon pond. They hatched in just 11 days! Those weeks were pretty warm which is why the hatching was so quick compared to previous years (when it was about 2 weeks to hatch).
Ariel sent these photos on 7/6/07 for identification. I think it is a wood frog.
Wood frog
Wood frog
On 3/16/08, a male wood frog was calling in my 20 gallon tub pond. I was really surprised he
even called when I got close.
Wood frog and the pond
Close-up of the wood frog - from
a separate photo. I also got a video with two of his quacks which you can see below.
Wood Frog - 1324 KB, mpg movie.
A male wood frog calling in my 20 gallon tub pond on 3/16/08.
These links were last checked on 4/12/07.
To see a photo of a wood frog and hear a call, go to this frog site .
To see another photo, hear a call, and get info, go to the Toronto Zoo site.
You can hear and see a wood frog and its tadpoles at Frogs & Toad of Virginia & Maryland. This is an archived version as the site no longer exists.
These two sites also have photos, calls, and information on the wood frog:
The Frogs & Toads of Tennessee
The Frogs & Toads of
Georgia
For a funny story about a wood frog, see "Mystery of the Clucking Frog". This is an archived version as the site no longer exists.
Here is an article on wood frogs freezing solid in winter.
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Copyright 1997-2008 Robyn Rhudy
