WHAT is living in our small pond?

[terracore]

Thought we had cane toads (and tadpoles) in our pond but doesn't look like them. What is it?

Picture:

http://www.e-z-caps.com/images/mystery%20creature.jpg

ETA: forgot to add, they seem to be juveniles. Also not currently making any noises.

[Peter Epperson]

you got a bullfrog

[terracore]

How?

There isn't any standing water for as far as the google eye can see in any direction?

[MarkP]

I have to build a pond first, but once I do I would love to have bullfrogs, so if you could hold on to a few for me.....

Have you ever heard them croak? Pretty distinctive I believe. There is a hotel on Kauai with a swampy river out back where I heard some once.

[cfscott]

These will hang out under moss clumps and in caves. Bufo toad?

[alaskyn66]

If I remember right frogs (bullfrogs) have webbed hind feet but toads don't. As they live in different environments...

By the looks of this one... You won't get a buzz if you lick it.

" The odds are good... But the goods are odd "

[shockwave rider]

http://el.erdc.usace.army.mil/ansrp/ANSI...e_toad.htm

This image shows a bufo marinus with webbed hind feet. Someone here a long time ago mentioned an amusing video on Cane toads in Australia called "The Cane Toad, an Unnatural History" that had footage of young toads that were dark and shiny like this one. The other thing I remember is that it said they are toxic to other living organisms in every life stage from egg to mature toad to dead toad.

[MarkP]

The round ear membrane behind the eye is distinctive and characteristic of bullfrogs. Pretty sure that is what it is.

[Wao nahele kane]

I'd agree Mark. The margin line around the ear membrane is a good match also for a bull frog.

It's certainly not a toad.
It's missing the brow ridge over the eye that extends down between the nostrils like a toad and there's no poison glands above and around to the back of the ear membrane.

[terracore]

The consensus is bull frogs... it's a tiny pond (literally a depression with a tarp in it, fed from the catchment overflow). I'm at a loss to explain how they got there. I haven't put anything in there so no chance of eggs hitchhiking and there are no artificial or natural ponds within hopping distance that I know of. If there were bullfrogs around- I'd think I'd hear them. The ones in our tarp pond look to be juveniles.

Another Puna mystery.

And yes MarkP when your pond is ready you can have as many as you want- assuming they are still around.