About Mister Toad
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: Turtle
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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Snapping Turtle Surprises Water Snake
A video shows a snapping turtle surprising a northern water snake when the turtle crawls onto a log. Continue reading
Posted in Natural History, Video
Tagged Ohio, Snake, Turtle
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Mother’s Day Muskrat and Turtles
The weather on Mother’s Day was excellent for spotting animals out and about in the Cleveland Metroparks. Here is a short video of a muskrat messing around in a pond. About 12 seconds into the video a painted turtle emerges … Continue reading
Posted in Natural History, Video
Tagged mammal, muskrat, painted turtle, Turtle, video
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Spring Toads and Turtles!
The return of warm weather has been bringing out the herps, like these basking painted turtles seen in the Cleveland Metroparks, or these calling American Toads seen at the CWRU Farm.
Posted in Natural History, Photography
Tagged American Toad, Mating, Turtle
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