You Are So Beautiful
People recognize this turtle by the large orange blotches on each side of its neck.
It has a long neck with a hooked upper jaw making its head able to flex and snap its prey.
It is Lancaster County’s native Endangered Species that prefers wet meadows.
They begin calling their familiar sleigh bell like chorus at the beginning of spring. When they call a large bubble seems to form under the frog’s mouth.
This frog has appeared on restaurant menus as a delicacy of “frog legs”.
Northern Leopard Frog
The size of it is comparable to a paper clip. Dark lines that form an X on their backs.
As a predator, they sometimes bury themselves in mud with only their eyes showing waiting for prey. Their diet includes dead fish, crayfish, frogs, aquatic insects, and waterfowl.
They are found from Virginia to Florida, and west to New Mexico. However, they are not native to Pennsylvania and should never be released into the wild in Pennsylvania.
Male frogs are territorial and make a deep full call that seems to have three beats. The call can be heard up to a half a mile.
It protects itself from predators with a bad tasting toxic secretion. The secretion can be irritating to humans.
A medium sized turtle, its carapace can be brown and sometimes gray with scutes that appear to be carved like wood. Yellow and black line can be found in the scutes.
The frogs eat a variety of things. They sit very still and wait for prey and then pounce with their powerful legs. They eat smaller frogs, beetles, flies, small birds, and garter snakes.
It is often sold as a pet to be cared for in captivity. The pet owner must be prepared that it can live for more than 30 years in captivity.
Its call makes sounds like a sudden, loud pluck of a banjo string.
They are part of a small group of animals that can freeze but not die. When the temperature freezes, they bury themselves in woodland mud and hibernates in a way that allows its breathing and heartbeat to stop.
The best way to tell the difference of the frog is to looks at dark ridge folds that start of the eye pass the tympanic membrane and continue down the back.
This turtle is omnivores eating earthworms, minnows, crickets, and other insects. They swallow their food whole and underwater.
The bony scales that cover shell.
The distinctive call from the male frog is a steady low pitched snore given while the frog is completely submerged in water. The call comes from a pair of vocal sacs.
The warmth of the sun and temperature conditions can effect whether male or female turtles hatch from the eggs. Cool nests will produce more male turtles. Warm nests will produce more female turtles.
A dark brown line forms a mask like feature from its snout, though the eyes, and ends past the tympanic membrane. The rest of the body is dark brown to reddish brown.
The turtle is diurnal and omnivorous. Its food choices include grass strawberries, insects, earthworms, newborn mice, and other turtle eggs.
Threatened species are nearly endangered due to significant drops in population. Land development and road fragmentation has depleted its habitat.
The eardrum that receives sound waves.
Tympanic Membrane
They can sleep underwater, buried in sand or mud. They can breathe air and absorb air in water. They hibernate under logs, stumps, or in beaver or muskrat lodges.