Episode 98: Northern Leopard Frog – Voice of the Wild

This is Brodie with Illinois Extension and I’m here with a new “voice of the wild”

You might hear this frog calling in marshes, wetlands, ponds, and even streams from march to may. While they are of course tied to water for breeding they can also be found foraging relatively far from it; so you might find one in an old field or a prairie. Appropriate to their name, these little three-inch frogs are covered in several rows of dark colored spots: This is the northern leopard frog.

There are three kinds of leopard frog in Illinois, the northern in the northern half, the southern leopard frog in the southern half, and the plains leopard frog in the center. The three frogs look broadly similar but sound quite different. The southern version has a shorter, chuckling trill, the plains has a shorter staccato “chuck” call, and the northern which, as you’ll hear on this second playthrough, can sound like a deep snore, or like a thumb pushing across an inflated balloon. Here’s the northern leopard frog again.

Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for today’s sound. Learn more about voice of the wild at go.illinois.edu/VOW