Botswana: CKGR – African Bullfrogs

While wildlife sightings become difficult during the rain season as plentiful water and grass cause animals to spread out, there is one positive – you can see bullfrogs come out in mass to breed. These are African bullfrogs (Pyxicephalus adspersus) – one of the largest and most resilient frog species in Africa. Since most of the year Kalahari is a brutally hot and dry desert, African bullfrogs burrow underground during the dry season and form a cocoon-like mucus layer around their body to retain moisture – like this they can stay buried for months or even sometimes years until rains arrive. When heavy rains create pools and puddles everywhere, bullfrogs emerge all at once to mate in a n absolute breeding frenzy. A single female can lay up to 4,000 eggs, which hatch in just two day, and it’s the males that then guard the tadpoles. Interestingly, African bullfrogs are also ferocious predators – they devour anything they can fit in their mouths, like insects, rodents, birds, reptiles, and even other bullfrogs.