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Briar Patch Outdoors

The American Bullfrog - Part Two

by Keith A. Williams

Bullfrogs are ambush predators, and can remain unmoving for long periods of time. When necessary, Bullfrogs can leap more than ten time their length, which can easily equal more than six feet for an adult. To capture food, the Bullfrog prefers to lunge with its mouth open at a potential victim. Once the tongue makes contact, it then clamps down on it with their powerful jaws. Since its teeth are not meant for chewing, it must attempt to stuff food into its mouth as far as possible with its front legs, and has a rather odd method odd way of assisting swallowing, in that its eyes can retract and help to push its food down the throat. They have sometimes been seen to pull their prey into the water with them. It has been speculated that this may help lubricate whatever it is swallowing, but it is primarily to help subdue its prey from prolonged struggles that might increase the risk of injury to the Bullfrog.

Bullfrogs have voracious appetites and generally will attack and eat most anything that it can catch and fit into its mouth- up to and including insects, fish, lizards, bats, snakes, rodents, crawfish, and even other frogs. There have even been reports of Bullfrogs with small birds in their stomachs.

Bullfrogs are native to much of the eastern United States, but are perhaps the most widely distributed amphibian in North America. Their legs are a delicacy that is much sought after in much of the world, and the poor practice of catching juvenile frogs has dropped the Bullfrog into a nearly non-existent status in areas that where it would otherwise flourish. Interesting, it was for their potential commercial value, that they have been imported into areas all over the planet, and a bit ironic to note that while the Bullfrog has nearly ceased to exist in some traditional places, that they have actually become invasive in other locations. In such areas where Bullfrogs either escaped, or were released into the unsuspecting environments after failed business attempts, their predatory effectiveness and large appetites can create hardships for the native wildlife. Not only do they compete with the native frogs for the natural food, but they will also eat the other frogs, fish, and other creatures to the point that they may eliminate them entirely. Also, resent research suggests that they may be carriers of the chytrid fungus (although mostly immune themselves) which has been a major cause to other frog populations around the world.


ON TO PART 3 - The American Bullfrog

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