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A Little Bit More

Pickerel Frog © Solon Morse

Amphibians have proven to be good monitors of environmental health. As various habitats have suffered from pollution, populations of amphibians often have dramatically decreased, giving clear evidence of negative environmental changes. Although many, if not most, amphibians are useful for this purpose, the Pickerel Frog seems to be especially sensitive to pollutants and is one of our best monitors – it is almost always found in unspoiled areas. This has been especially true around the Great Lakes area where urbanization and industrialization have dramatically reduced the quality of aquatic habitats.

Northern Leopard Frog © Solon Morse

Now that you know how to tell Pickerel Frogs from the four similar species of Leopard Frogs (Northern, Southern, Plains, and Rio Grande Leopard Frogs), when you see a Pickerel Frog, you can probably assume that the habitat is reasonably clean. If you’re interested in identifying the four different Leopard Frogs, probably the easiest way is to look at their ranges in a field guide. Although the four Leopard Frogs cover a wide area across the U.S. and Canada, there is not much overlap of their ranges, making it much easier to know which is which in your area.

Activities

Science & Social Studies – Hometown Frog

The Pickerel Frog and four (actually there are 5) Leopard Frogs are found across much of North America. Students should be able to use a field guide to amphibians (they can go online too) to determine whether they have Pickerel Frogs in their area and which one of the four Leopard Frogs is found in their home area (there is some overlap of ranges for the Leopard Frogs).

1. Print out this map of North America and make copies for your students
2. Have students make a bold dot on the map where they live in North America
3. Have your students use a field guide or go online to find out where the 5 following frogs live (their ranges in North America).
4. Tell the students to create a legend for each of the frogs – use diagonal lines for the Pickerel Frog and a different color for each of the Leopard Frogs
5. I’ve already done this in a previous unit so you can check this out to see how they’re doing
6. Have students list the 5 frog names and each legend color/design next to their names below the map

1. Pickerel Frog – use diagonal lines
2. Northern Leopard Frog - blue
3. Southern Leopard Frog - pink
4. Rio Grande Leopard Frog - yellow
5. Plains Leopard Frog – green
6. Relict Leopard Frog – this has an extremely limited range so we’ll not do this subspecies

Since the Pickerel Frog’s range overlaps quite a bit with the ranges of the Leopard Frogs, the diagonal lines should show nicely through the various colored areas and students will have a graphic depiction of where all five of these frogs live.

Key Concepts

Structures and Functions, Populations and Ecosystems, Identification, Environmental Issues, Adaptations and Diversity

Questions

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