A Guide to California's
Reptiles and Amphibians

Sounds of Lithobates catesbeianus - American Bullfrog

(=Rana catesbeiana)

Click on a picture for a larger view

Click the play button or the speaker icon to listen to an mp3 sound file.

Main Page

Tadpoles and Development

Northwest Page

Texas Page

Adult Male Calling

Advertisement Calls

An advertisement call is the most well-known call of a frog. It is produced by a male during the breeding season to attract females of his own species. It can also serve an agressive function to defend his calling site by warning rival males of his presence. Frogs usually make the calls around bodies of water that are suitable for breeding and egg laying. These calls can be heard during the evening and at night, and sometimes during daylight at the peak of the breeding season.

An older female will also vocalize sometimes along with males, which creates more competition among the males, allowing the female to further choose the most dominant male.

The advertisement call of the American Bullfrog can be described as a loud low-pitched two-part drone or bellow. The calls are made during the day and at night.

This is a 3 second recording of two advertisement calls of one male made at night on the Colorado River in Imperial County (shown below on the left.)

This is a 22 second edited recording of the advertisement calls of three males made at night at an irrigation canal in Imperial County (shown below on the right.)

This is a 14 second recording of a short series advertisement calls of two males made at night on the Colorado River in Imperial County (shown below on the left.)

This is a 9 second recording of a short series advertisement calls of one male made at night on the Colorado River in Imperial County (shown below on the left.)

Colorado River Habitat

Imperial County Irrigation Canal Habitat

Video:
A large male Bullfrog makes advertisement calls at night from a lake in Arizona.

Video:
A big male bullfrog calls from the edge of a lake in the daytime. He sat making single calls every few minutes, until suddenly lots of other bullfrogs began calling all around him and then he made his full calls. Here we see him start with a full series of calls, then wait a bit before making a second series of calls, but this time starting with some longer notes before doing his typical calls. There was a second male about 10 feet from him who was silent, but after the first male makes his second full series of calls, the second male begins calling at 1 minute 10 seconds into the video. We can't see him, but his calls sound about as loud as the first frog, but you hear them when you can see that the first frog is silent. This calling disturbed the first frog so much, he made a short, sharp, territorial call and leaps in the air in the direction of the second frog. When I finally found him again, he was closer to the second frog, but the second frog hadn't moved.

Waveform and Sonogram of Advertisement Call

This is a recording of the advertisement calls of an American Bullfrog recorded during the day in Imperial County. The image on the right is a visual representation of this call. Click on it to see a larger image. Click here for information about how to read the waveform and sonogram images.

Alarm Calls

Bullfrogs, primarily juveniles, produce an alarm call, a fast squeak, which is usually made before a frog jumps into the water to escape from danger.

This is an edit of three sequences of alarm calls recorded at the edge of a pond in Grant County, Washington (shown below on the left.) The first is a single call and splash; the second is two calls and splashes; and the third is one call followed by the sound of the frog jumping over a mat of dry reeds.

This is a 1 second recording of the alarm call of a juvenile bullfrog jumping into an irrigation canal in Sacramento County during daylight (shown below on the right.)

Habitat, Grant County, Washington.

Habitat, Sacramento County.

This is a 2 second recording of the alarm call of an adult bullfrog jumping from the shore into a small creek in Stanislaus County during daylight (shown below on the left.)
(Background sounds include the sound recordist's clothing rustling as he quickly walked up to the creek to startle the frog, and a flying insect.)

This is a 1 second recording of the alarm call of a juvenile bullfrog jumping from the shore into a small creek in Stanislaus County during daylight (shown below on the left.)

Habitat, Stanislaus County.

Video:
Hundreds of bullfrogs make their frightened chirping alarm call as they jump in and out of the water, or run across the surface to escape from danger..

Encounter Call and Territorial Sounds

A male bullfrog will make a sharp short call when another male bullfrog gets too close to his territory.

Bullfrogs also make chirping and grinding or rasping sounds when interacting with each other, including their alarm chirp.

This is a short recording of an encounter call heard at night at an irrigation canal in Imperial County where males were calling. Bullfrog advertisement calls are heard in the background.

Video:
In this very short video, we see a frog make the short sharp territorial call, then jump towards a rival calling male.

Video:
Bullfrogs sitting around a crowded pond interact with each other, making chirping sounds and what appear to be low raspy territorial sounds.

Release Call

The following sound was made by a large adult female bullfrog (shown below on the left) found on a dirt road at night in San Diego County. She was handled for a few minutes after which she began to struggle to escape, making a low growling sound.

This is a short recording of the sound made by a struggling adult female bullfrog (shown below) when she was handled.

Adult female, San Diego County

Distress Scream

When an American Bullfrog is under extreme stress, it may emit a loud open-mouthed screaming sound, which is very disturbing to hear.

There is a good U-tube video of a bullfrog screaming here.

You can listen to more recordings of American Bullfrogs on this cd:

Carlos Davidson - Frog and Toad Calls of the Pacific Coast - Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

and on the cd that comes with this book:

Lang Elliott, Carl Gerhardt, and Carlos Davidson - The Frogs and Toads of North America - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Return to the Top