Giant Bullfrog (Pyxicephalus adspersus) road cruise and release

[Buck Rogers]

I came across this post on a local South African forum. For anyone who is interested in spawning pools and what they will look like. Usually there will only be one male that stays behind to guard all the tadpoles.
SAReptiles • View topic - All Over Namibia

[Buck Rogers]

Date: 20th October 2013
Time: 7 - 8:45pm
Temp: 14°C
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Rainfall: +/- 24mm in 24 hours

We had our first consistent rainfall from Saturday night to Sunday night and although it was not the most rain as compared to previous seasons, I took the opportunity and way to go on another road cruise. It was a less successful drive than previous years, as I only came across one lone Bullfrog and only saw one DOR (dead on road). I think the main contributor to this is that we have had hardly any rain this season. Last year we had scattered showers from September and then one solid 24 hour down pour, this season has been a very dry start. The one thing I noticed was there were a few Common Clawed Frogs (Xenopus laevis) on the roads, which tells me that they were migrating to bigger pools which means there are very few water pans that have filled.

The one Bullfrog that I did find was quite big, roughly 20 cm (snout to vent) and was very lethargic, which could have been a result of the cold weather. You can see from the pics that he looks well fed but his hips were exposed and the fat was hanging low, which makes me think this specimen was recently out of hibernation.





In previous years I always though that the Bullfrogs were migrating, and they have to cross the road to get to bigger pans, but now I think that they are actually hunting. After the rains there were plenty of toads on the road either warming up or hunting insects. There were plenty King Crickets (Libanasidus vittatus) on the road last night and I think this is what actually brings the Bullfrogs to the roads at night.

Here is a pic of one of the clawed frogs on the road:



I am hoping that I will hear some males calling from the breeding pool near my house that I can get some pics for you guys of this, but I really do doubt this will happen because we have had so much housing development in our area over winter, that I am sure most of the Bullfrogs have been killed or displaced.

[Buck Rogers]

Our summer rains came very late this year, and only in the last 2 weeks have we had our annual 24 hour rainfall session. This usually is when we have a solid 24 hours of heavy rains that usually exceed 50mm, and with this all the water holes/pans full and this is when the frogs go into crazy breeding mode. If I could only describe the noise that we've heard over the last few weeks it is incredible. At any given pond/damn/puddle there is life again, but my best was about a week ago while I was in the bath I heard the deep bellow of several male bullfrogs. I took a drive around my area and walked around that evening to try find the pan that they were all gathered in, but I think it was actually in someones property. We live in an area that was old farm land, and there were several pieces of land that were subdivided into smaller plots. A lot of these plots still have perennial water holes so it is impossible for me to actually get in there and find the breeding pools. I will however be exploring a few of the vacant/open land and see if I can find some tadpoles and hopefully some males guarding the tadpoles.