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
Rought night for peepers: predation by a turtle, bullfrog and beetle.
Moderator: Scott Waters
- BillMcGighan
- Posts: 2362
- Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:23 am
- Location: Unicoi, TN
Re: Rought night for peepers: predation by a turtle, bullfrog and beetle.
Okay, Mike,
Those are great. Capturing each is a "National Geographic" moment.
Those are great. Capturing each is a "National Geographic" moment.
Re: Rought night for peepers: predation by a turtle, bullfrog and beetle.
Thanks! Lots of fun to see.
-
- Posts: 19
- Joined: July 16th, 2012, 7:43 pm
- Location: Orange County, California
Re: Rought night for peepers: predation by a turtle, bullfrog and beetle.
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.