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mister-toad.com is the personal website and blog of Mike Benard, a biologist who studies the ecology, evolution and conservation of amphibians and other organisms. Mike can be contacted at: mfbenard -at- gmail . com.Copyright Information
Unless otherwise noted, all text and images are © Mike Benard. If you would like to use any of the material in this blog, please send me an email.Mister-toad.com
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Tag Archives: Predation
Turtles, predaceous beetles and bullfrogs eating spring peepers.
In early April 2020, I had an experience that will forever change my view of painted turtles. While watching spring peepers calling for mates, a painted turtle swam under a peeper, caught it, and swallowed it in less than 90 seconds! The turtle wasn’t the only predator hunting spring peepers that night. I also watched a predaceous diving beetle and a bullfrog hunting and eating spring peepers. Several videos here show how these predators caught and ate the spring peepers. Other videos show how spring peepers that escaped the predators. Continue reading
Posted in Natural History, Photography, Video
Tagged Bullfrog, Frog, Invertebrate, Predation, spring peeper, Turtle, video
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Rain Posture in Yellow Garden Spider
Photos and video show how a yellow garden spider changes its behavior in a heavy rain. The spider hangs from its web using its back legs, so it is perpendicular to the ground. This might make the body less of a “target” for raindrops. Continue reading
Posted in Natural History, Photography, Video
Tagged behavior, Invertebrate, Natural History, Predation, spider, video
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sucking the blood of frogs
A couple years ago I posted about leeches eating frog eggs. This year I spotted a struggling juvenile green frog floating near the surface of a pond. It was partway through metamorphosis, with all four legs, but also a long … Continue reading
Posted in Natural History, Photography
Tagged Frog, green frog, Invertebrate, Leech, Predation
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Introduced goby eaten by native water snake
I moderate a Flickr group called “Snakes eating in nature.” The group contains many wonderful observations of different snakes and the prey they catch in the wild. After the group passed its first 1,000 contributions, I posted a few examples … Continue reading
Posted in On the Web, Uncategorized
Tagged flickr herping, garter snake, Predation
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One thousand photos of snakes capturing prey in nature
The internet has been a tremendous boon for gathering and sharing observations about nature. Outlets for natural historians range from interactive websites run by academics like the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology’s ebird, to informal discussion forums like the FieldHerpForum. One … Continue reading
Posted in Natural History, On the Web, Photography
Tagged Natural History, Predation, Snake
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