Rought night for peepers: predation by a turtle, bullfrog and beetle.

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mfb
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Rought night for peepers: predation by a turtle, bullfrog and beetle.

Post by mfb »

Recently I was out in northeast Ohio listening for frogs at night. I noticed a painted turtle swimming under a peeper. The turtle grabbed the peeper from underwater chewed it and swallowed it in less than 90 seconds. Here is a video:

Sometimes the turtle missed the peepers (the turtle wasn’t a very efficient predator).

Also saw an adult predaceous diving beetle eat a spring peeper (watch the other male crawl over its dying colleague without a second thought):

A bullfrog ate some spring peepers that night:

But the bullfrog also missed the peepers on some attacks.

And here is a male peeper calling without getting killed:

Put some more details in a blog post about predators eating peepers.
Hope you found this interesting! Mike
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BillMcGighan
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Re: Rought night for peepers: predation by a turtle, bullfrog and beetle.

Post by BillMcGighan »

Okay, Mike,
Those are great. Capturing each is a "National Geographic" moment.
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mfb
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Re: Rought night for peepers: predation by a turtle, bullfrog and beetle.

Post by mfb »

Thanks! Lots of fun to see.
DylanMcDiarmid
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Location: Orange County, California

Re: Rought night for peepers: predation by a turtle, bullfrog and beetle.

Post by DylanMcDiarmid »

In my neck of the woods, it's pretty hard to come by calls like that. Awesome footage...except now I'm gonna have nightmares now about that toe biter...I've heard those things pack a mean bite so beware.
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