Animal Tracks - Foothill Yellow-legged Frog

	Foothill yellow-legged frogs are found near streams and rivers. They will come out on the banks to sun themselves, but dive to the bottom if a predator or a threat approaches. They stay still along the river bottom and their color helps camouflage them there. The underside of the hind legs and the abdomen are usually yellow. The younger frogs don't have the distinctive yellow coloring right away, but acquire it as they grow older. The frog in this photo had very faint yellow coloring on its legs. The skin is usually granular in apparance. These frogs breed between mid-March and early June. They range from the Cascade Mountains of Oregon all the way south to the San Gabriel River near Los Angeles.
This is the left hind track of a yellow-legged frog. The tips of the toes are not globular or bulbous like those of the Pacific treefrog. (Pacific treefrogs have toe pads on the tips.) Yellow-legged frogs have toes that are more pointed than those of the Pacific treefrog. This track was found in fine river silt along the Eel River near Redway, California. Penny for scale is 3/4 inch across.

These frogs are fairly common where I live in California. When walking along creeks with gravel or cobble banks, it is sometimes startling when one of these frogs leaps into the water and dives to the bottom. They are hard to see amongst the rocks and their sudden appearance and disappearance is marked only by the distinct 'plop' as they hit the water. Unless you are looking right at the frog, all you hear is the sound. I occasionally find the egg masses left by these frogs. The tiny eggs are visible in their individual globs of jelly. It doesn't take long before the eggs begin to take on the shape of a tadpole. They sometimes wriggle when they are still inside the jelly envelope. Note the shape of the toes in this photo. Compare them to those of the Pacific treefrog on the treefrog page.

Young yellow-legged frog. Photo by Kim A. Cabrera. February 3, 2001.

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