The Smallest Frog in North America

Welcome to Nature Notes, the newest feature in the Shelby Energy Newsletter. Each month we will showcase unusual plants and animals for your reading and viewing pleasure.

This weeks feature is the Little Grass Frog. A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of being invited to South Carolina to hunt salamanders, frogs and snakes (biologists do things like that, you know). While driving the backroads around the backwaters of the Savannah River I heard a very unusual chirping noise. It was a sound that I had previously heard only on tape: the mating call of the Little Grass Frog, Pseudacris ocularis .

Sounding more like an insect than a frog, we followed the tinkling sound deep into the flooded grasslands in the middle of the night (biologists do things like that, you know). Each nervous step taken to ensure that no Cottonmouths or Alligators were disturbed in the process just to catch a glimpse of the tiniest frog in North America.

What an amazing site it was to witness a frog no bigger than a housefly perched on blades of grass at the waters edge chirping to its little heart’s content.

The Little Grass Frog ranges in length from 7/16 to 5/8 inches. It is a member of the group known as the chorus frogs. Chorus frogs are most often seen and not heard, but during the mating season they are quite vocal. In the South, these frogs call year-round, but are most active during the cool rains that begin in November.

Although not found in Kentucky, this frog is found throughout the South. Can you identify the frog perch in the picture above? A little hint: This Little Grass Frog seemed a tad teed off while posing for the picture.