Species:
Lithobates catesbeianus
American Bullfrog
Some other names for this species:
Bullfrog
Notes on this species:
The genus Lithobates was split from Rana by Frost et al in 2006. Most references still use the long-established Rana catesbeiana for this species.
July 15, 1998
Laguna Grande Park, Seaside, Monterey County, California
Bullfrogs are extremely skittish for such large strapping frogs. I managed one long-distance telephoto shot of this one before a scrub jay squawked by and the frog vanished into the muck.
September 20, 1998
Garland Ranch Regional Park, Monterey County, California
There were many small to mid-sized bullfrogs on the edge of the pond this day. Most would leap into the the water and hide in the murky bottom at the first small motion ten yards away, but an occasional foolhardy individual would sit still long enough for me to snap a photo.
August 1, 1999
Coachella Valley Preserve, Riverside County, California
In the century since they were first brought to the west coast as food stock for the gold rushers, bullfrogs have established themselves in nearly every viable stream or pool in California, even in this palm oasis in the middle of the Mojave desert. This little fellow is just making the tadpole-to-frog transition, and still has a bit of its tail left.
July 6, 2008
Garland Ranch Regional Park, Monterey County, California
Here's a very large bullfrog looking smug in a pond in which it and its fellow aliens have probably eaten most of the native Northern Pacific Treefrogs, Southern California Toads, etc.
