Western chorus frog facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Western chorus frog |
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Hyla triseriata |
The western chorus frog (Pseudacris triseriata) is a small frog found in Canada and the United States. It's also called the striped chorus frog or midland chorus frog.
Contents
What Does the Western Chorus Frog Look Like?
Western chorus frogs are small, about 40 mm (1.6 in) long. They have smooth skin and can be greenish-grey, reddish, olive, or brown. Their color can change depending on where they live.
These frogs usually have three dark-brown or grey stripes that run down their back. Sometimes, these stripes can be broken, faded, or even missing. Their belly is white or cream-colored, often with dark spots. They have a white stripe along their upper lip and a dark stripe that goes across their eye and along each side of their body. Some frogs might also have a dark triangle spot on their head.
Their toes are small and round, without sticky pads, and they have very little webbing between them.
How to Tell Males and Females Apart
Male frogs are usually smaller than female frogs. You can tell males apart when they are calling because they have yellow vocal sacs under their throats. When they are not calling, this sac looks like a dark, loose flap of skin.
What Do Tadpoles Look Like?
Western chorus frog tadpoles have gray or brown bodies. They are round with clear tail fins and dark spots. If you look closely, you might be able to see their coiled intestines through their belly skin. Their lips are black.
Where Do Western Chorus Frogs Live?
These chorus frogs live in a very large area. You can find them from Canada all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico in the United States. They live from New Jersey to central Arizona.
They can live from near sea level up to about 12,000 ft (3,700 m) high in mountains. They are tough and can even survive in temperatures as low as –8 °C (17.6°F).
What Kind of Places Do They Call Home?
Western chorus frogs live in many different habitats. However, they usually choose places with water that dries up sometimes. This helps protect their eggs and tadpoles from predators that live in permanent water bodies.
They like temporary freshwater areas like marshes, river swamps, wet meadows, grassy pools, and other open areas in mountains and prairies. These temporary water spots are great for mating, laying eggs, and hibernation (sleeping through winter).
Since these areas can dry out, you might also find these frogs in old farm fields, damp woodlands, ditches by roads, and wooded swamps.
How Do Western Chorus Frogs Behave?
These frogs are mostly active at night and like to stay hidden, so you don't often see them. The best time to spot them is on warm nights when they come out to call. Both males and sometimes females will call loudly in large groups.
Males use a special call to attract females to places where they can lay eggs. The call of a western chorus frog can be heard from half a mile away! It sounds like a distinct "cree-ee-ee—eeek." This call lasts about 0.5 to 2.0 seconds and can happen 18 to 20 times in a minute. When it's warmer, they call even more often, sometimes 30 to 90 times a minute.
These frogs rely on staying hidden to keep safe from animals that might eat them. If something disturbs them, they stop calling and quickly dive into the water, or hide under leaves, logs, rocks, or loose soil. They can stay hidden for several minutes. These hiding spots on land also serve as places for them to hibernate during the winter.
What Do Western Chorus Frogs Eat?
Western chorus frogs come out at night not just to call, but also to find food. Adult frogs eat small invertebrates (animals without backbones) and arthropods (animals with exoskeletons). This includes small flies, mosquitoes, ants, small beetles, moths, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and spiders, as long as they are small enough to eat.
Young frogs, called froglets, eat even smaller prey like mites, midges, and springtails. Tadpoles eat tiny plants and algae found in or on the water's surface, such as periphyton, filamentous algae, diatoms, and pollen. They will also eat dead things if they get the chance.
Life Cycle and Reproduction
Breeding happens at different times depending on where the frogs live. Usually, the western chorus frog's breeding season starts in March and lasts through May, with April being the busiest month. In warmer, southern areas, breeding can start even earlier.
The first sign of breeding is when you hear choruses of frogs calling on sunny days. Males call for days or even months to attract females. As the season goes on, these calls move to evenings and cloudy, rainy days. These frogs typically live for about five years.
After mating, a female can lay between 500 and 1500 eggs during the whole breeding season. She lays eggs in clusters, with each cluster having 20 to 300 eggs. The eggs are held together in a loose, jelly-like clump. They are laid underwater and stick to weeds or grasses along the edges of shallow ponds, flooded ditches, fields, and swamps.
The eggs hatch into tadpoles within three to 14 days after being laid. However, cold water can slow down the growth of both eggs and tadpoles. Tadpoles then change into froglets (small frogs) 40 to 90 days later. This change is called metamorphosis.
Conservation and Why They Are Important
Even though western chorus frogs can adapt well to human activity, their numbers are decreasing in some areas. The IUCN lists them as "least concern," meaning they are not currently in danger globally. However, in Canada, the western chorus frog is listed as "threatened" in the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence - Canadian Shield region under the Species at Risk Act.
The western chorus frog is an important indicator species. This means their health can tell us a lot about the health of the environment. If these frogs show deformities, have trouble reproducing, or change their body shape, it could mean there is pollution or toxic substances in the environment, sometimes from tiny parasites called trematodes.
So, by checking on the health of these frogs, scientists can learn if pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers from farms are leaking into the environment. Also, these frogs help control insect populations, which benefits both humans and the environment.
- Peterson Field Guide – Western Reptiles and Amphibians – 3rd Edition.
- Pough, F.H. Herpetology – Third Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2004. Print.
See also
In Spanish: Pseudacris triseriata para niños
