American bullfrog

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Amphibia

Order

Anura

Family

Ranidae

Genus

Lithobates

SPECIES

Lithobates catesbeianus

WEIGHT

0.5 kg

LENGTH

460 mm

The American bullfrog, often simply known as the bullfrog in Canada and the United States, is a large true frog native to eastern North America. It typically inhabits large permanent water bodies such as swamps, ponds, and lakes. Bullfrogs can also be found in man made habitats such as pools, koi ponds, canals, ditches and culverts. The bullfrog gets its name from the sound the male makes during the breeding season, which sounds similar to a bull bellowing. The bullfrog is large and is commonly eaten throughout its range, especially in the southern United States where they are plentiful. Their presence as a food source has led to bullfrogs being distributed around the world outside of their native range. Bullfrogs have been introduced into the Western United States, South America, Western Europe, China, Japan, and southeast Asia. In these places they are invasive species due to their voracious appetite and the large number of eggs they produce, having a negative effect on native amphibians and other fauna. Bullfrogs are very skittish which makes capture difficult and so they often become established. Other than for food, bullfrogs are also used for dissection in science classes. Albino bullfrogs are sometimes kept as pets, and bullfrog tadpoles are often sold at pond or fish stores.

This is a part of the Wikipedia article used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA).