African Bullfrog

This is the African bullfrog.  It is also called a pixie frog.  It lives in southern Africa.  You can’t tell from this picture, but it is a really big frog.  It has a round body and grows up to 8 inches in diameter.  They eat insects, reptiles, small mammals, other frogs, and almost anything else that moves.  One time, an African bullfrog that lived in a zoo ate more than a dozen baby cobras.  They dig underground in the dry season and live there without food or water.  During the wet season, they come out and eat and lay eggs.  The male guards the tadpoles, who swim around him for protection.  But the male also eats some of the tadpoles.

Even though they are big, they are really good at hiding.  That’s why you can’t see very much of him in these pictures.  The picture below shows a little bit of his back.

We saw this frog at the Frogs exhibit at Milwaukee Public Museum.