Understanding their dietary habits reveals how frogs adapt to different life stages and surroundings.
The Adult Frog’s Menu
Adult frogs are primarily carnivorous, consuming a wide range of small invertebrates. Their diet commonly includes insects such as flies, mosquitoes, beetles, crickets, moths, butterflies, grasshoppers, and termites. They also prey on other invertebrates like earthworms, spiders, slugs, and snails.
Larger frog species exhibit a broader appetite, capable of consuming small vertebrates. This can include small fish, lizards, and even other amphibians like smaller frogs or tadpoles. Some particularly large species, such as African bullfrogs, are known to eat small mammals like mice, birds or bats. The diet of an adult frog is often opportunistic, depending on available prey in their environment.
The Tadpole’s Diet
The diet of tadpoles differs significantly from that of adult frogs, reflecting their aquatic lifestyle. Most newly hatched tadpoles are primarily herbivorous, feeding on algae, detritus, and decaying plant matter found in their watery habitats. They use specialized mouthparts to scrape algae from surfaces. Tadpoles will also consume soft aquatic plants such as duckweed.
As tadpoles grow, some species can become omnivorous or even carnivorous. They may consume small aquatic invertebrates, insect larvae, or carrion. In situations of limited food, some tadpole species have been observed to eat other tadpoles. This dietary shift occurs before undergoing metamorphosis into adult frogs.
Hunting Strategies
Frogs employ an ambush predation technique, waiting patiently for prey to come within striking distance. Their excellent vision, which includes good depth and movement perception, helps them detect potential meals. Frogs possess a wide field of view, almost 360 degrees, allowing them to survey their surroundings without much head movement. Many species also have specialized night vision, enabling them to hunt effectively in low-light conditions.
Once prey is detected, a frog rapidly extends its long, sticky tongue to capture it. This action is incredibly fast, occurring in as little as 0.07 seconds, which is significantly quicker than a human blink. The tongue’s stickiness comes from a unique, reversible saliva that changes its viscosity upon impact, effectively gluing the prey to the tongue. After capture, the frog retracts its tongue, swallowing the prey whole without chewing. Frogs often use their eyeballs, which can retract into the roof of their mouth, to help push the food down their throat.