Pickerel Frog (Rana palustris)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Nonforested Landscapes

      (Lake or Pond or River)
   adjacent to:
      (Any Emergent Wetland or Bog)

Habitat List:

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Literature:

Pickerel frogs inhabit grassy or marshy edges of bogs, lakes, springs, and streams. They prefer cooler waters than do northern leopard frogs and are less likely to move long distances from water.

Pickerel frogs eat a variety of insects, spiders, snails, worms, and other invertebrates.

Habitat: Colder waters of lakes, ponds, clear streams, springs, sphagnum bogs, limestone quarry pools. In Massachusetts, fairly ubiquitous along streams and shores of permanent ponds and lakes. In summer found in pastures fields, or woodlands often at a distance from water. Prefers water with thick vegetation at edges for cover. Hibernates in mud at bottom of ponds or in ravines under stones from October to March. Some individuals found wintering in caves in Indiana.

Special Habitat Requirements: Shallow clear water of bogs and woodland ponds for breeding.

The pickerel frog is ubiquitous throughout Maine, inhabiting the shores of lakes, ponds and streams. Although it is less abundant in the cattail marshes and sedge meadows so favored by leopard frogs, the pickerel frog is more apt to be found around spring runs, hilly ravines, and even sphagnum bogs. After breeding it often moves to fields, meadows, and damp woods, where it can be collected with leopard fogs and other members of the genus. Pickerel frogs usually hibernate in the mud of pond bottoms, but they are apt to enter dormancy later than some other frogs and have been known to move about on the bottom of springs during the winter.