Raising the next generation of geeks.

Would you like to know just how sad our weekday evenings at home are? Last night after baseball practice, we ate dinner and as usual heard our little frog start singing. He just went on and on, which caused him to become the focus of our dinner conversation. And what did we do? We became determined to figure out what kind of frog we have in our little water fountain.

So I whip out my iphone and search frogs of Tennessee by sound. That is right, we sat on the floor of the kitchen (next to the window closest to the frog) for a hour playing frog sounds until we could unanimously decide that we have a Crawfish Frog.

Crawfish Frog
Rana areolata

Photo by Bob English, LEAPS

Description: Crawfish frogs are typically 2.25 - 3 inches long. They are dark gray in color and are characterized by dark spots outlined with a light border on the back.

Reproduction & Growth: Females lay masses of 3000 - 7000 eggs. Eggs are attached to stems of vegetation. Metamorphosis of tadpoles takes about 2 months.

Habitat: Northern crawfish frogs are normally found in lowland woods, river floodplains and wetland prairies in western Tennessee. They remain underground in the burrows of other animals (often crawfish burrows) during the day.

Voice: (WAV file 66K) A deep snore that sounds like "waaaaater." (Recording courtesy of Carl Gerhardt.)

To add insult to injury, we are going to catch him this weekend JUST to be sure!!!