Taxonomy and Description

• Gopher frogs (Lithobates capito) are plump frogs with a stout appearance. Adults grow to be 2.5 to 3.5 inches in size. Gopher frogs were formerly classified as a member of the Rana genus, which includes all of the true frogs. Gopher frogs are light brown to gray in color with small dark spots covering their body. They also usually have two distinct lateral lines running along the ridge of their back. This coloration works as camouflage, aiding the gopher frog in capturing prey for their large insectivorous diet.
  
  

Range and Habitat

• Gopher frogs are endemic to the coastal plain of the Southeastern United States west to the Mississippi Valley extending west into parts of Louisiana, and from North Carolina south to Florida. As their name suggests, gopher frogs make their home in burrows excavated by the gopher tortoise. They are typically found in dry, upland pine forests that have sandy soils and rely on burrows as shelter from predators as well as the hot, dry environment during the day. The burrows also serve as a base for hunting prey at night. It is finding a suitable burrow that determines where gopher frogs settle and hunt from rather than availability of food since insects in the same habitat are always abundant.
  
  

Diet

• Gopher frogs are generalist carnivores and will eat anything they can fit in their mouth. They are nocturnal hunters and stay close to their burrow when seeking prey. Gopher frogs are opportunistic feeders and will eat insects, especially beetles, spiders, worms, and even other smaller frogs that happen to wander by their burrow. Specimens kept in captivity for research will readily feed on crickets and worms, as well as small mice.
  
  

Reproduction

• The gopher frogs depend on seasonal, fish-free ponds for reproduction from October to April. Adults move from the dry uplands to the newly formed wetlands to mate. Young metamorphose in the wetland environment before moving to the dry uplands once mature. Like adults, the diet of young gopher frogs is opportunistic and is primarily composed of small insects. Gopher frogs are active travelers and can live over a mile from their seasonal breeding pond.
  
  

Environmental Pressures

• Fire suppression of pine forests of the coastal plains is one of the main influences affecting the gopher frog. Without fire, both forests and the understory grow thicker, reducing the available habitat for burrowing animals like the gopher tortoise that the gopher frog depends on for shelter. Also, many seasonal ponds are covered over by vegetation and lose their ability to retain standing water, making reproduction impossible. Direct human pressures such as the forest fragmentation, roads and development are particularly detrimental to gopher frogs as they often move large distances from their shelter to breeding ponds. Consequently, the gopher frog is being considered for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.