Southern Cricket Frog

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name's Tim Cole. I'm with the Austin Reptile Service. I've been keeping reptiles and amphibians for over forty years. I'm here to talk to you about southern cricket frogs. This is a very small frog, about that big, that occurs in the southern United States, and they actually look kind of like toads, because their skin is bumpy or granular. And they can come in a variety of patterns. Some of them have stripes on them that can be green, some of them have a reddish stripe. And these are very small frogs that occur in, usually permanent bodies of water. Your area creeks, lakes or swamps. They get their name cricket frog because of their call. It sounds like a cricket. They can be rather noisy. Fishermen like to use cricket frogs for bait. I once saw somebody pick up a little cricket frog and throw him out in the pond, they said this was a bass test. And the water erupted, and that frog was eaten pretty quickly by a big bass. So obviously, they like to eat 'em. But they're very quick frogs, live in the water's edge, hop around in the mud close to the water where it's wet, and in the springtime they can be rather noisy if you're in an area where they're calling."