© 2025 University of Missouri - KBIA
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Discover Nature (Missouri Department of Conservation)

Discover Nature: Northern Cricket Frog

KBIA | By Kyle Felling
Published May 27, 2020 at 8:20 PM CDT
A tan-colored northern cricket frog with a reddish-brown stripe on its back sits on a light yellow leaf.
The northern cricket frog can appear in a variety of colors from grey to tan to greenish-tan to brown, with a white belly and sometimes an irregular green, yellow, orange, or brown stripe on its back.

This week on Discover Nature, watch – and listen – for the northern cricket frog.

 

Commonly seen along the edges of ponds and streams, especially on mud flats and gravel bars, scientists are monitoring Missouri populations due to rapid declines in other states. 

 

The northern cricket frog can appear in a variety of colors from gray to tan to greenish-tan or brown, with a white belly. 

 

Their metallic calls resemble the sound of small pebbles being rapidly struck together. 

 

Warm weather stimulates males to chorus, and breeding peaks in late June in shallows of ponds and backwaters with an abundance of aquatic plants. 

 

Females may lay up to 400 eggs, either singly or in small packets attached to submerged vegetation. Eggs hatch in a few days and tadpoles begin metamorphosis five to ten weeks later. 

 

Northern cricket frogs prey on many insects that humans consider pests, and their calls provide a musical chorus day and night in Missouri’s outdoors. 

 

Learn more about Missouri’s northern cricket frogs and how to identify them with the Missouri Department of Conservation’s online field guide. 

 

Discover Nature is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Tags
Arts and Culture Discover Nature
Kyle Felling
Kyle Felling’s work at KBIA spans more than three decades. In 2025, he became KBIA and KMUC's Station Manager. He began volunteering at the station while he was a Political Science student at the University of Missouri. After being hired as a full-time announcer, he served as the long-time local host of NPR’s All Things Considered on KBIA, and was Music Director for a number of years. Starting in 2010, Kyle became KBIA’s Program Director, overseeing on-air programming and operations while training and supervising the station’s on-air staff. During that period, KBIA regularly ranked among the top stations in the Columbia market, and among the most listened to stations in the country. He was instrumental in the launch of KBIA’s sister station, Classical 90.5 FM in 2015, and helped to build it into a strong community resource for classical music. Kyle has also worked as an instructor in the MU School of Journalism, training the next generation of journalists and strategic communicators. In his spare time, he enjoys playing competitive pinball, reading comic books and Joan Didion, watching the Kansas City Chiefs, and listening to Bruce Springsteen and the legendary E Street Band.
See stories by Kyle Felling
Related Content