The Bullfrog, Our Nova Scotian Giants

There are lots of frogs around this year! After the dramatic decline in the past decade they have been making a comeback around my cottage on the Medway. My favourite is the Bullfrog. It is the biggest of our native frogs and spends most of its adult life in- or inches from- water.
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They are usually seen as a large head with two googly eyes poking out of the water but an adult can be a full nine inches long from nose to toes. A shiny, smoky, green with long, powerful legs and fully webbed feet, the female is usually larger than the male. Both have a yellow underside and a whitish lower jaw.

Frog Trivia:

The male can be told from the female by his ears being larger than its eyes. The female has ears of roughly the same size as her eyes.

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It is the male that makes the call, a deep, harrumph that echoes along the river. It always struck me as funny that the other sound both the males and females make is a high pitched squeak, just before they dive for cover if you happen to startle them.

They hibernate until weeks after the Peepers have been singing the advent of Spring. Bullfrogs start to be seen around the middle of May. They awake with a strong urge and continue their courting well into July.

The female lays her jelly-encased eggs in still water. They hatch in warm weather in as few as four days but interestingly the larval stage or tadpole can take up to three years before metamorphosing into a frog.

The lifespan of a bullfrog can reach sixteen years.

Bullfrog a Delicacy?

Some people consider the legs of the Bullfrog a delicacy. The flesh is a milky white and is supposed to taste like chicken.

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When I lived in Vancouver, I saw frog’s legs on the menu of a restaurant and as a lark; I ordered them. They arrived on a plate, surrounded by lettuce and vegetables.

They were a lovely golden brown but unmistakably the severed and cooked legs of a frog. I steeled myself to see this through and picked one up.

Twisting it and looking at it from all angles to see how best to approach eating it, I settled on the chicken-wing approach. I nibbled the large thigh muscle and slowly chewed it, savouring the delicate flavours of swamp, algae and just the barest hint of dragonfly nymph. Chicken my foot! Frog tastes exactly as you expect it to. The texture is quite nice though.
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How to Catch a Frog:

Should you be tempted to try and catch a bullfrog, the funniest and best way is to tie a small piece of red cloth -about the size of a grasshopper- to the end of a three-foot long piece of string. Tie this string on the end of a long pole of about fishing rod length.

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Walk along the marsh until you spot a frog, then lower the red cloth to about six inches above the frog. Move the cloth enticingly as though it was alive and the frog will shoot its tongue out and grab it. You then have a second or two to flip the frog within reach before he can spit out the lure.

A great way to entertain the kids at the camp and mostly harmless I think. The guys down south, who harvest frogs for their legs, use hooks baited with the traditional red cloth.