Rana temporaria - Common Frog

These amphibians are very common around the rivers, ponds and lakes of Wales; sometimes they can even be found breeding in ditches that dry up completely in summer. Adult frogs vary considerably in colour.

Life cycle

Frogs mate in early spring. You may see paired frogs around the margins of ponds and slow-flowing rivers in March and early April, and soon afterwards the frogspawn appears in large blobs. (Toads shed their spawn later in the spring; they leave it in long ribbons and so it is easily distinguished from frogspawn).

In a few weeks, depending on how cold the water is, tadpoles emerge from the spawn. They swim near the edges of lakes, often in vast numbers. (That is just as well, because herons eat a lot of tadpoles!) After a while, little gold spots appear on the tadpoles - toad tadpoles remain black, so it is easy to tell which are which - and then tiny legs are formed and then the tail drops off.

By this time it is late summer and the tadpole has lost its rounded shape and developed the general appearance of an adult frog; the colour also changes to a greenish-brown. It is now time for the tiny froglet to leave the water.

Apart from during the early spring breeding season, adult frogs spend most of their time in damp places on land. They eat insects, worms and other small invertebrates, which they catch mainly at night.

Unlike the dry warty skin of a toad, the skin of a frog is smooth and has to be kept moist at all times. Frogs are therefore less likely to be found in wood piles and old sheds - just the sort of places you might find a toad.

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