The art of hunting a cricket

[Gnag the nameless]

I am curious; who else likes to watch their frogs hunt their prey? I certainly do. I'm not trying to be cruel, and yes, I sometimes do feel a bit remorseful, but many scientists agree that crickets and insects alike are not conscious. And I never have [and most likely never will] fed my frogs a mouse.

Anyways, I simply find it interesting to watch an animal hunt prey, using their primal instincts and specialized tactics to capture their meal.

I'm also curious, do frogs hunt in different ways? Maybe, you all could explain how your frogs hunt. I'd love to know all the different ways a frog catches it's prey. I wouldn't think Pacman frogs chase their prey around like my frogs will do if they miss or prey escapes their grasp [which it rarely ever does]. However, are all frogs ambush predators?

For me, since my juvenile bullfrogs were wild caught as froglets, they are very skittish, so catching one in the act of hunting is a rare and precious moment. I need to have a camera nearby more often.

As for how they hunt, here's a rather dramatic revision of it:

My juvenile american bullfrogs will swim towards their prey, as silent as the water itself. If it is a shallow section of the water, they will stalk towards their prey like a tiger on the prowl approaching an unsuspecting Sambar deer, getting ready to strike. They will get within jumping range, and leap, swallowing their prey whole, whether it is on a lilypad, rock, leaf, or simply floating in the water. They will open their mouths to envelope their prey or using their front arms to cram the food into their mouth. This happens within a second, maybe even half a second. Also, the second they leap, they'll never give up. Even if they must chase the cricket onto land, so be it, they will hunt that thing down! And then they'll eat it up, and have this kind of smug look on their faces. It's a real spectacle to watch.

[fish4all]

My Pacific Chorus Frogs simply goes all out like a Cheetah chasing whatever they are after until they catch something to eat. Once they have eaten a few, they will sit and wait for the remaining ones to walk by them. Kinda of a work like hell to get attitude to get an almost full belly and then sit on their haunches and let the leftovers come to them thinking that they are the lucky ones for making it that far.

[Lina]

Watching my pyxie hunt is one of my favorite amusements! I put him (don't know the sex yet but think of it as a male) in a plastic box when it's feeding time and then drop the crickets in there one at a time. Since there are not much space to get away and no hiding places for the crickets it's of course very easy for him to catch them. Most times it's over within a second. Sometimes though the cricket manages to run behind him. Then he swiftly twirls but usually the cricket now stays completely still and it seems he can't really see it then. A couple of times he's then been sneaking towards the cricket. It looks very funny! He raises his body from the ground and walks very slowly. It also looks so funny when he crams the cricket into his mouth with his "hands".

[UncleChester]

My treefrogs generally sit and wait for food to come close to them. Then it's an all-out dignity-abandoning attack with little to no regard for how mashed up their fingers and toes get (see first 2 photos below). The front hands are also used to help cram the food in, and the eyeballs go squishing into the skull to help swallow the food. If they miss the lunge, they'll usually just go back to sitting and waiting for another opportunity. There is the occasional spying of food from across the tank then slowly walking closer, but it's usually sit and wait, they're very patient.

Probably 80% of the times I see my treefrogs move is when they're eating, so in terms of the frogs 'doin stuff', it's always fun to watch. They aren't like cats who will run randomly in circles for no apparent reason.

I never feel bad for their food items. Circle of life and all that. Besides, I do breed my own crickets and maybe 20-30% of those get to die of old age after having spent their lives eating and breeding to their hearts content. Some win this jackpot, same get sacrificed. The odds are even better for my mealworm colony, very few actually make it into my frogs (but these occasions are much easier to photograph than the cricket eating). They've come to accept this arrangement and will sometimes offer brave volunteers to jump down the frog-beasts throat (3rd picture below).

[mpmistr]

I am curious; who else likes to watch their frogs hunt their prey? I certainly do. I'm not trying to be cruel, and yes, I sometimes do feel a bit remorseful, but many scientists agree that crickets and insects alike are not conscious. And I never have [and most likely never will] fed my frogs a mouse.

Anyways, I simply find it interesting to watch an animal hunt prey, using their primal instincts and specialized tactics to capture their meal.

I'm also curious, do frogs hunt in different ways? Maybe, you all could explain how your frogs hunt. I'd love to know all the different ways a frog catches it's prey. I wouldn't think Pacman frogs chase their prey around like my frogs will do if they miss or prey escapes their grasp [which it rarely ever does]. However, are all frogs ambush predators?

For me, since my juvenile bullfrogs were wild caught as froglets, they are very skittish, so catching one in the act of hunting is a rare and precious moment. I need to have a camera nearby more often.

As for how they hunt, here's a rather dramatic revision of it:

My juvenile american bullfrogs will swim towards their prey, as silent as the water itself. If it is a shallow section of the water, they will stalk towards their prey like a tiger on the prowl approaching an unsuspecting Sambar deer, getting ready to strike. They will get within jumping range, and leap, swallowing their prey whole, whether it is on a lilypad, rock, leaf, or simply floating in the water. They will open their mouths to envelope their prey or using their front arms to cram the food into their mouth. This happens within a second, maybe even half a second. Also, the second they leap, they'll never give up. Even if they must chase the cricket onto land, so be it, they will hunt that thing down! And then they'll eat it up, and have this kind of smug look on their faces. It's a real spectacle to watch.

I occasionally feed my african clawed frogs (x. laevis) crickets, they are completely aquatic crogs so their method of hunting insects will obviously differ from terrestrial frogs. In the wild, they are known to prey on insects that fall into the water and get trapped on the surface water tension so when feeding I will sprinkle a few crickets into their aquarium water.

Once they hit the water they vainly will try to swim and this attracts the frogs very quickly. The methods used by each frog is actually a bit different. Some of my frogs will slowly wade up to the surface until it is right beneath the cricket and then quickly strike and retreat to the substrate (xenopus will always retreat on a successful or unsuccessful attempt to catch prey near the waters surface, it's an instinct to avoid predation from birds and other predators). One of my frogs can actually swim directly upwards strike the cricket and catch it in it's mouth and fall back to the substrate in all one motion, which is quite impressive for a species which supposedly has poor vision.

It is pretty cool to observe all this, xenopus use their forearms to push food into their mouths and since they lack a tongue they also use a hyobranchial pump to suck food into their mouths, they often will use plants to anchor themselves and stay slightly below the surface, waiting for prey to present itself.

[Gnag the nameless]

This is all quite interesting. Thanks for the replies.

It's always irritating when the crickets sit still, then jump far out so my frogs have difficulty catching them. Well, Gnag does, anyways. She prefers to quietly [and slowly] creep up on crickets as I described earlier. Bumpy's the ninja of the tank. She's the chaser of the pair and she can hop amazingly far for such a small frog, and she will NEVER give up once she's locked on. In militaristic perspectives, Bumpy's the jet, Gnag's the helicopter. Except Gnag packs more firepower she's much bigger, and damn, she eats more. Bumpy tends to take a couple of crickets and be done with it. Gnag will eat as many as she can get.

Lol! I love the pictures of your treefrogs, Brian.

My frogs often detect a swimming cricket by small vibrations in the water. I know this, because the more mini-waves in the water there are, the faster my frogs come out of hiding.

[yoshimi]

i read this, laughed at those pics, then looked in on my american toad and his pointy little butt was up in the air, all but one leg in food dish, going after the last of the few tiny crickets i managed to wrangle earlier. i was trying to get them into bowl then transfer into powder for a shake-up, but he got to most of them 1st. he's a hilarious and skilled little hunter. sadly, i'm not, and at least 2 are roaming around my kitchen somewhere right now, lost when i tried a different method to get some shaken up. hoping they'll wind up in the cat water or a cat's belly, sooner rather than later. i'm out of practice with crickets, prefer food that more or less stays put, but i think he enjoys the in-tank escapees. i've read that toads generally sit and wait for food to walk by, but he goes crawling after them. or if one wanders near his burrow, i hear the *snap* of the tongue from under plant. love the enthusiasm, but not the dirt he eats along with bug. :/
regardless of where the food is, my favorite thing is the way his little head whips around to stare at it when he 1st sees it. no neck, so it's ridiculously cute to watch. i'd imagine much less adorable for the bug. (i actually imagine this quite often. gruesome.)

[MatthewM1]

Leelu rushes over to the side of their little island I drop the crickets onto and picks them off as they wander toward the side but Bender usually goes running when I open the top and Leelu finishes off all or most of the crickets before he decides to come back over and I have to tong feed him which he takes no problem even though he is terrified when I open the lid. Then Leelu gets jealous that Bender is getting tong feed, even though she just ate both their servings of dinner and swims over and jumps at the tongs untill I give her something then let's me finish feeding Bender without trying to steal

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