Juveniles
Tadpoles in the latter stages of metamorphosis congregate in sun-warmed locations around lake margins. By July, it is not difficult to spot large tadpoles with four well-developed limbs and partially resorbed tails. By the end of the summer, metamorphosis will have fully transformed these tadpoles into juvenile frogs. Juvenile bullfrogs are particularly conspicuous because they make an emphatic and distinctive “MEEP” sound as they propel themselves, like fleeing grasshoppers, off of floating aquatic vegetation and into the water.
These juvenile frogs are particularly prone to head off overland during warm rainy nights in the late summer and early fall. They are also an important food source for adult bullfrogs, who readily cannibalize them.
