bullfrog
A very large frog with a loud, deep croaking call.
A bullfrog is a large frog found throughout much of North America, named for its deep, booming call that sounds like a distant bull bellowing. If you've ever heard a loud “jug-o-rum” or “br-wum” echoing from a pond on a summer evening, you were probably listening to a male bullfrog announcing his territory.
Bullfrogs are impressive creatures: they can grow as long as eight inches and weigh more than a pound, making them one of the biggest frogs in North America. They live in lakes, ponds, and slow-moving streams, where they sit patiently waiting to catch anything they can swallow: insects, smaller frogs, fish, even small birds and snakes. Their appetites are enormous, and they're not picky eaters.
These frogs are powerful jumpers and strong swimmers, with muscular back legs and webbed feet. In some parts of the world, people eat bullfrog legs as food. Bullfrogs have also become a problem in places where they don't naturally belong: when people release pet bullfrogs into the wild in other parts of North America or in other countries, they can take over local ponds and eat native species that haven't evolved to compete with such aggressive predators.