Identifying a wild frog and wondering about keeping

[miker00lz]

Hi, I really am new to frogs and I've never taken care of one before. I found this little guy (I actually am not sure of it's gender) sitting on top of my lawnmower when I went out to cut the grass. I know that supposedly you should never keep a wild frog because it causes them crazy amounts of stress, so if that's the case I will definitely take him outside and let him go free. I wasn't planning to keep him originally. I went to grab the frog to get him off the mower. I expected him to freak out and run off, but he didn't seem to mind being handled at all.

I used to have a few fish, and I still had the 5 gallon tank that they lived in, so I thought that since I was about to mow the lawn, I would just would just stick him in there until I was finished just in case he got in the path of my mower and I didn't notice. It's a pretty small frog. Anyway, I put about an inch of fresh water in the tank and stuck a couple big rocks in for him to sit on. After I mowed, I went to go get him out again. I expected him to be freaked out about having been in the cage and would try to escape, but no it's been really really calm and I found I can even hold him for extended periods and he kinda seems to even enjoy it. It also seems to like it when I scratch it's back.

Later on in the day I did take him outside, set him down and the grass and expected him to go away but 30 minutes later I went out for a smoke, and noticed that sure enough that same frog came right back and was just sitting by the door! Never seen anything like that from a wild frog before! So, naturally I brought him back in and he's been hanging out in the tank for a couple days now. Now and then I get him out and he still seems to enjoy when I scratch it's back. I fed him a few mealworms, and he eats them right up. I read that when they are stressed out, they refuse to eat.

So, it's kind of a strange situation and I wanted to ask some of you frog experts your opinion on this one. What should I do here? Should I let him go again anyway no matter what, or do you think it's okay to keep doing this and just keep a lookout for signs of stress? He's actually sitting here next to my keyboard right now, and I'm going back and forth between typing and scratching it's back.

Here's a picture of the frog I took after I first brought it inside. He's only in that small DVD spindle cover because I hadn't set up the tank again yet. He was in there for 5 minutes tops, then I moved him into the tank as soon as I put the water and rocks in. Can anybody tell what species it is? Looks like a typical garden frog to me, but I'm sure it has a proper species name.