The wood frog is found in the northern and middle areas of North America, from Alaska and Labrador to northwestern South Carolina and the northeastern corner of Georgia. It's the only North American amphibian ever found north of the Artic Circle. These frogs live in damp wooded areas where they can bread in temporary spring ponds with above-water vegetation such as cattails.
The adult female wood frog ranges up to 3 inches or a little more in length, while the male is much smaller. The color ranges from yellowish gray through greenish to brown, with a lighter stripe along the backbone. A dark, mask-like marking through the eye to the upper lip has given the creature the nickname, "robber frog." The belly is white, with a dark spot on each side of the chest.
Wood frogs forage on the forest floor during the day, mainly for insects and other small invertebrates such as spiders and slugs. Younger frogs, who spend more time in the water than adults, also feed on small mollusks.
Along with spring peepers, wood frogs are the first amphibians to emerge to mate in the spring, often when the ice is just breaking up on ponds. The males gather on the surface of a pond and call all night, as long as the temperature remains above freezing. The call is a hoarse, clacking sound similar to a duck's quack.
The female lays a fist-sized, jelly-like mass of about a thousand eggs that sticks to vegetation above the water's surface. Tadpoles hatch in mid to late April and reach the adult stage in 40 or 50 days. They feed on leaves and algae as their color gradually changes from black to green and legs develop.
During the winter, wood frogs hibernate under rock piles, dead logs, or dead leaves.