Range/Habitat: Green frogs are native to eastern North America, stretching down into Northern Mexico. They are found in many aquatic habitats including swamps, wooded swamps, ponds, lakes, marshes, and bogs; they typically reside in these locations permanently.

Size: 2.3 - 3.5 in. (5.7 - 9 cm)

Appearance: Despite their name, green frogs vary in color from green to greenish brown to brownish to yellowish green and olive, with some rare individuals being blue. Their underbellies are white, the throats of males bright yellow during the breeding season; a smattering of darker spots and stripes run along their backs and legs respectfully. They have a distinctly protruding ridge (dorsolateral ridge) running from their eye to the middle of their backs. Males have a larger tympanum (outer ear) than females—a female’s tympanum about the size of their eye.

Diet: They are opportunistic feeders, choosing between animals that are large enough to detect and small enough to swallow, making feeding choices a reflection of habitat and availability. Some specific prey items include: annelids, mollusks, millipedes, centipedes, crustaceans, and arachnids; insects such as coleopterans, dipterans, ephemeropterans, hemipterans, lepidopterans, odonates, orthopterans, and trichopterans; and vertebrates such as fishes and other frogs

Other: There’s a high likelihood that you’ve heard a few of these fellows chirping outside of your dorm room window. Listen to their call here (sung from May to August).

Range/Habitat: Stretching from the East Coast through the Midwest, into parts of Northern Mexico. Eastern cricket frogs live at the edges of ponds and streams with vegetation.

Size: 1.6 - 3.5 cm

Appearance: Their two defining features are a dark triangle shape between their eyes—its apex facing towards the frog’s spine—and a stripe or Y-figure running down their backs. The latter feature can be bright green, russet, yellow, shades of brown, or gray. They have bumpy skin and dark bands on their legs.

Diet: These frogs are opportunistic feeds, praying on primarily small arthropods and insects.

Other: Their staccato, croaky calls can be heard from April to August. Listen here.

Range/Habitat: Ranges from Canadian Maritime Provinces to the Carolines, stretching west to Minnesota and eastern Texas. There are many gaps in these populations, though, particularly along the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain. Pickerel frogs are commonly found in cool, wooded streams, seeps, and springs with dense vegetation, but can also be located in the relatively warm, turbid waters of the Coastal Plain and floodplain swamps. In the summer, these frogs have been known to wander far into grassy fields or weed-cover areas away from the water.

Size: 1.8 - 3 in.

Appearance: Often confused with the Northern Leopard frog, Pickerel frogs have two parallel rows of dark brown, squarish spots on their backs, as well as splotches of the same color along its legs. Its base color ranges from a light olive-green to a light brown, while its belly and chin are an off-white.

Diet: Pickerel frogs are carnivorous and consume small insects and other invertebrates.

Other: Pickerel frogs secrete a toxic substance that can be fatal towards small animals, especially other amphibians; snakes avoid preying on them for this reason. On human skin, it is a mild irritant. Their oscillating, warbly call can be heard from April to May; listen here.

Range/Habitat: Eastern North America, stretching from northern Canada to the northern parts of Southern United States’ states. Eastern American toads are incredibly adaptable, able to live anywhere with a semi-permanent freshwater pond/pool and dense patches of vegetation, from forests to backyards.

Size: 2 - 3.5 in. (5.1 - 9 cm)

Appearance: Eastern American toads vary in color from brown to gray to olive to brick red. They are covered in many bumps, with larger warts behind their eyes. Males are smaller than females and have darker throats. Their lower halves are dusted with patches of dark pigment.

Diet: Opportunistic feeders, Eastern American toads eat insects and other invertebrates, including snails, beetles, slugs, and earthworms. Unlike most toads, American toads can shoot out their sticky tongues and catch prey.

Other: Voracious that they are, American toads eat many species of insects and are considered to be “friends to gardeners and farmers.” If you’ve ever caught a herptile at W&M, it is likely an Eastern American toad—they can be found particularly all around campus in the fall. Their calls are unmistakable: long trill sounds that each last between 4 and 20 seconds between March through August. Listen here.

Range/Habitat: American Bullfrogs are native to the Nearctic region, stretching vertically along the East coast from Nova Scotia to central Florida and horizontally to the Rockies. They’ve been introduced to California, Mexico, Europe, South America and Asia. They are required to live in water, so are found in places like lakes, ponds, rivers, or bogs. Bodies of water modified by humans are some of their favorite places to reside due to their increased temperatures and increased aquatic vegetation.

Size: 3.5 - 6 in. (9 - 15.2 cm)

Appearance: Incredibly similar in physical appearance to the Green frog, but about 50% larger. Their dorsolateral ridge is less distinct, as well.

Diet: As opportunistic feeders, Bullfrogs mostly eat insects, snakes, worms, insects, other frogs (including tadpoles and adults of their own species), crayfish, mice, and more. Smaller Bullfrogs eat more insects; larger Bullfrogs target the larger prey items.

Other: Bullfrogs are hunted by people for their legs as a food source. They are highly territorial, with roughly circular territories of 2-5 meters in diameter. Most physical encounters are won by larger males by engaging in wrestling, shoving, and pouncing. Younger males unable to hold territories against larger, older males, employ male parasitism (intercepting females attracted to large males) and opportunism (temporarily holding a vacated territory until threatened by a larger male) as mating strategies. Listen to their call here (sung from May to August).

Range/Habitat: Spring peepers are found in the eastern half of the United States, biased towards wooded habitats. They breed in freshwater ponds or pools, often using temporary ponds that dry up as to avoid fish and other aquatic predators.

Size: 0.8 - 1.3 in. (1.9 - 3.2 cm)

Appearance: Spring peepers are a range of warm colors (yellow, tan, brown, gray, or olive) with a distinctive, dark X-shaped mark on their backs. Their bellies are plain. Males have dark throats and are usually smaller and darker than the females.

Diet: Insectivorous, including ants, beetles, flies, and spiders. Opportunistic feeders—prey is selected based on availability and size rather than preference.

Other: Being such a small frog, Spring Peepers are preyed upon by many animals. Adults are eaten by salamanders, owls, large spiders, snakes, and other birds; tadpoles are eaten by the diving beetle, leeches, dragonfly larvae, and giant water bugs. They are distinguished by their high, piping whistle of a call, which can be heard here (sun February - June and in October).

Range/Habitat: Most concentrated from lower Midwest to Texas, with smatterings of populations through Florida and Virginia. They prefer still water with a muddy, organic bottom, abundance of aquatic vegetation, and basking sites.

Size: 5 - 8 in. (12.5 - 20.3 cm)

Appearance: Their defining feature is the elongated, broad red stripe behind their eyes. They have yellowish-green shells with yellow stripes in some of the plates making up the shell.

Diet: Omnivores. Diet includes aquatic vegetation, tadpoles, smallfish, and aquatic invertebrates.

Other: Red-eared sliders are non-native—a pet store turtle that has been released and naturalized. At W&M, look for them basking along the Dells (Crim, Grim, and Swem).

Range/Habitat: Southern Virginia to Northern Florida and Southern Alabama. Yellow-belly sliders inhabit all manner of freshwater habitats, including lakes, rivers, ditches, marshes, bays and swamps. Their preferred habitat contains organic substrate, aquatic vegetation, and basking sites.

Size: 5 - 8 in. (12.5 - 20.3 cm)

Appearance: Similar in appearance to the Red-eared slider, but without the Red-eared slider’s distinct red marking behind the eyes. The underside of the Yellow-bellied slider is primarily yellow, with 2-6 small dark spots as well.

Diet: Juvenile sliders are primarily carnivorous, while adult sliders are omnivorous; this is because juveniles need the nutrients from animals that they cannot get from plants in order to survive while growing up. Prey includes grasshoppers, larvae, spiders, crayfish, tadpoles, fish, clams, freshwater sponges, snails, slugs, small amphibians, and other reptiles. Adults feed mostly on aquatic plants and terrestrial plant material like stems, leaves, flowers, and seeds; they also eat algae. Sliders are opportunistic feeders, foraging on both land and water.

Other: Unlike Red-eared sliders, Yellow-bellied sliders are native to Virginia. At W&M, look for them basking along the Dells (Crim, Grim, and Swem).

Range/Habitat: Lower New England to Upper Southern States, westward until the Midwest. The Woodland Box Turtle can be found in a variety of wooded areas, including hardwood forests, mixed oak-pine forests, pine flatwoods, maritime oak forests, hardwood swamps, and agricultural areas.They enter water, but only temporarily for summer aestivation, drinking, and dispersal.

Size: 4.5 - 6 in. (11.5 - 15.2 cm)

Appearance: Box turtles are known for their “helmet-like” shaped shell, highly domed like a hardhat. Their shells are typically brown, occasionally black, with a highly variable pattern of orange to yellow lines, spots, or blotches; their eyes are a striking orange. The underside of their shells have an elegant, layered rectangular pattern to them.

Diet: Omnivores. Vegetation includes berries and mushrooms; animals include slugs, snails, beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, flies, and salamanders.

Other: There’s a hinge on the bottom-front of the Box turtle’s shell that allows them to tuck themselves away completely inside of their shell. They are a common species, so keep a lookout as you take walks through the College Woods.

Status: Non-venomous

Range/Habitat: From southern Ontario to South Carolina, stretching west to Nebraska and Colorado. They utilize many kinds of aquatic habitats—such as rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and marshes—but prefer open locations with spots to bask and relatively still waters.

Size: 24 - 42 in. (61-106.7 cm)

Appearance: Northern water snakes are dark in color—brown, tan, or gray in appearance. Their back and sides have a series of square blotches alternating with each other that may merge to form bands; their undersides are a cream to a yellowish, sometimes a pinkish, with two irregular rows of dark half-moons along the expanse as well.

Diet: Carnivores. Primarily fish and amphibians, including fish-brook trout, smallmouth bass, American Toads, American Bullfrogs, and salamanders. Non-constricting snake—eats live prey whole.

Other: Northern water snakes are most active during the daytime. Furthermore, they are only social during the fall and spring after overwintering; during these times, they can be found in groups at basking sites coiled together. In water, they usually remain submerged for only about 5 minutes but are capable of remaining below the surface for up to an hour and a half.

Status: Non-venomous

Range/Habitat: Stretches from Connecticut to South Carolina, westward to Kansas and Oklahoma. They’re found in fields, woodlands, farmlands, and around suburban communities.

Size: 3.5-7 ft (1-2m)

Appearance: Shiny, black scales on their backs, with a light-colored belly and white throat and chin. Their heads are wider than the rest of their bodies.

Diet: Carnivores. Excellent swimming and climbing abilities allows them to catch and consume a variety of foods such as rodents, amphibians, hatchlings, bird eggs, and frogs. They are constrictor snakes, meaning that they will suffocate their prey to death before eating them.

Other: Eastern rat snakes emit a foul-smelling odor when they feel threatened by a predator that imitates the taste of poison. They brumate in colder months—a bodily process similar to hibernation that allows them to be mostly asleep, but still wake up for occasional activities, such as drinking water.

Range/Habitat: Nearly all of the East Coast except Northern New England, stretching west to Minnesota down to Louisiana. Their range is terrestrial and widespread, including habitats such as meadows, marshes, woodlands, hillsides, and agricultural and urban areas; they prefer moist, grassy environments.

Size: 18 - 26 in. (45.7 - 66 cm)

Appearance: Greenish, olive, brown, or black body with a distinct yellow or white stripe down their spines. Checkerboard black and green pattern on the lateral sides of the body.

Diet: Carnivorous. Prey includes earthworms, amphibians, leeches, slugs, snails, insects, crayfish, small fish and other snakes. as well as the occasional small mammal, lizard, and baby bird. Non-constrictor—swallows live prey whole.

Other: Most active March through November. They are viviparous, meaning that they grow and release live young rather than laying eggs. They are also the Official State Snake of Virginia!

Range/Habitat: From Southeastern Canada to the United State’s Mid-Atlantic, stretching westward into the Northern Midwest. Eastern red-backed salamanders lack lungs and thus must live in moist/damp habitats in order to breathe. They like to hide under logs, leaf litter, and burrows in low-acidity soil in deciduous forests. During the winter, they will burrow under the frozen ground.

Size: 2.25 - 4 in. (5.7 - 10 cm)

Appearance: Eastern red-backed salamanders have two color morphs: lead-back and red-back. The lead-back phase salamanders are uniformly dark gray or black, with brassy or white flecks along their skin in some populations. The red-back phase is characterized by an orange to red stripe from its neck all the way down its back. These color variations occur throughout all populations throughout North America, and there is no clear correlation that links morph proportion to environmental factors.

Diet: Top predator of the detritus food chain. Primarily consumes small invertebrates, including arachnids, worms, snails, larvae, and insects.

Other: They can drop part of all of their tail in the event of an attack by a predator. Furthermore, they secrete noxious concentrations along the top of their tails that deter predation. Turn over a few logs and rocks in the College Woods during the warmer months and see if you can find a couple of these critters! (Be cautious of snakes, though!)