Sunday, October 6, 2019

Whither Goest Thou, Prince?

Last Wednesday was hot and humid, drizzly with temperatures in the 80s. It was a swampy day, and the swamp denizens took it as an opportunity to go a-wandering. I found a handsome prince in our parking lot, about a hundred and fifty meters from its pond:




This is a northern green frog (Lithobates clamitans), this picture, though a little blurry due to low lighting conditions, nicely showcases the ridges along the back which distinguish green frogs from their larger bullfrog cousins. It was a nice night for a frog to wander, buggy and muggy, but the setting was perilous, with raccoons and skunks and possums abounding. The pond isn't much better, with snapping turtles and herons. I guess frog life is not so grand...

3 comments:

bowtiejack said...

"I guess frog life is not so grand..."
I remember there was a case a couple of years ago of a high school student who objected to having to kill frogs in biology class.
After a court case (is this a great country or what?), a judge entered an order that the student was to be supplied with frogs that had died of natural causes.
The judge was than informed by real world biologists that there was no such thing as a frog that died of "natural causes". They always came to a bad end.
A frog's life is indeed nasty, brutish and short.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

No retirement homes for frogs!

Li'l Innocent said...

Well, there's nothing "unnatural" about being eaten by a natural predator. But it does sort of cut out the biology students.
We can't know how a critter perceives its life as it's being lived.