Frog Harassing Mating Toads

[karlos]

Hello all, new guy here. I have a small pond that is three years old. We have three frogs we see regularly. This morning I came out and found two toads mating and laying eggs- amplexus- cool! However, two of our frogs seem hell bent on disrupting their good time. One or both of them will climb on submerging both the male and female toad. I normally just let nature take its course but my wife and 10 year old daughter have different ideas and keep separating them. No matter how far away they move the frogs, they keep coming back and sinking the toads. I tried to google it but I came up empty and so here I am. Just curious, does anyone know what the frogs are doing and why? Oh, the pond( and me) is in Rochester, NY if that helps. Thanks in advance.

[Robyn]

Welcome to the forum, Karlos!

Do you know what species of frog they are?

I have seen male wood frogs amplex male green frogs a few times. I just saw a male toad amplex a female bullfrog a few days ago. When a male frog or toad is in the mood, if there's not a handy female nearby, they will amplex any other frog or toad regardless of species or sex. I suspect your frogs that were jumping on the toads were males who wanted in on the action. You can try to separate them but may harm them in the process. Yes, they might hurt each other but such is the crazy way of nature. If the frogs were not grabbing on to the toads but just jumping on them, they may have been acting territorial which would again indicate that the frogs were male. I saw two male green frogs wrestling a few days ago, pretty rough and tumble. I have not seen a frog jump on a toad but I don't have a lot of toads around.

Enjoy them!