By Tanner Marsh —
Mark Twain once said “If it’s your job to eat a frog it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”
The American bullfrog that Mark Twain might have written about is not native to this region. It was brought to our area by the early gold miners who wanted the larger frogs to eat, for their legs.
The bullfrog gets its name because the female’s croak sounds like a “moo” from a bull. They are not picky about where they lay their eggs. Sometimes they lay them in a fast moving river. The American Bullfrog is three and one-half to eight inches long. Their colors are olive green and light green.
The American bullfrog has become a problem to our ecosystem because it eats other species of frogs and is causing them become endangered. This bullfrog is also abundant. It likes to eat everything it can get its mouth around, including invertebrates, fish, mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians.
Here’s a map showing where the species is located in the United States: Biology Corner American Bullfrog map.
Tanner Marsh is a John Muir Academy student at Yosemite Falls
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