Jerry Dilldine, age 10, of High Point, N.C., for his question:
IS A BULLFROG DIFFERENT FROM A TOAD?
The big bullfrog has a voice and a tummy like a tuba. He is a genuine frog, though rather a special one. There is not much difference between the various frogs and their cousins, the toads. Sometimes it is hard to tell which is which. However, usually we find the warty toad off in the woods or meadows. The bullfrog and his kinfolk have smooth skins and enjoy life near a favorite swimming pool. A granddaddy bullfrog may .be eight inches long and be more than 10 years old. Chances are, you will find him in a quiet pond or a lazy creek. Or he may be resting on the bank, gazing at the world through his round, turreted eyes. Since he is a true frog, he is a champion swimmer with extra long strong hind legs and webbed toes. His moist skin is speckled to match the scenery and usually quite smooth.
When the winter gets chilly, he hibernates down in the mud on the floor or in the banks of his swimming pool. Mating time is spring or early summer, when the weather reaches about 70 degrees. Then we hear his booming love song, perhaps from half a mile away. He hollers jug o rum, jug o rum, jug o rum. Then he rests for five minutes or so and repeats his tuba type tune.
The female bullfrog lays maybe 20,000 eggs among the weeds in the water, and the tadpoles usually hatch in about a week. Other frog tadpoles become frogs in a few weeks. But the bullfrog tadpoles remain tadpoles all summer. Come fall they may be two or three inches long. Then they hibernate like the grown bullfrogs. Usually they grow legs and swap their gills for lungs during the second summer. But sometimes they remain in the tadpole stage through another year.
The average American toad is quite a bit smaller than an adult bullfrog. His toes are webbed, but he does not have those long froggy type hind legs. His speckled coat matches the scenery, but almost always it has rashes of bumpy warts. He is rather clumsy and certainly he cannot leap, dive or swim like a graceful frog.
As a rule, he deserts the water as soon as he changes from a tadpole into a toad. He hops off to the woods and meadows. Once a year, during the mating season, he returns to the water where the female lays her eggs. Then we hear his trilling love song, sweet and clear. The tadpoles become little toads in just a few weeks. Come winter, they dig burrows or hibernate under stones or fallen leaves.