April 23 First Tadpole!?

With a wetlands class this morning we dipped our nets into the Nature Center pond in search of creatures that are awake and active now in late April. With the recent cool down, the surface temperature of the water is actually five degrees colder than it was this time last week. Still, we found a lot of different critters, including this, our first tadpole of the spring. Judging by its size and the kinds of frogs we usually see in this pond, our best guess is that this is a bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana). At 3 to 8 inches long, the bullfrog is the largest frog in North America, and its deep call sounds like a foghorn, or sometimes a bunch of bullfrogs will make you think you are hearing a flock of geese. While this is an extremely exciting find, it turns out that this tadpole is likely a year old and spent the winter under the ice. I say this because according to my field giude, bullfrogs are the last Wisconsin frogs to breed - usually in late May and through June. This tadpole will turn into a froglet this summer, growing its legs, but will not be an adult bullfrog for another two or three years. Another surprisingly long life cycle for one of our most common aquatic creatures.