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You have to be there to understand this title and it definitely isn't
what you think. It's the sound of bullfrogs in my backyard pond. Really!
To make the sound you and I have to constrict our throats as if we are choking,
and force out the "unk" from the back of our throats. The "g"
sound comes out because of the constricted throat. The sound isn't really
"gunk" the way you read it. It's more like a combination of "unk"
and "onk" with the "g" in front. Sorry. That's the best
description I can give you, but I'm not the only one who hears this sound.
My daughter does too and she imitates it the same way. Whoever wrote that
bullfrogs make the sound "burwum" wasn't listening to my frogs.
One of the field guides says they make a sound like "jug o'rum."
No way, though I admit I've heard big ones rumble a long sound that is a
lot like a drawn out "burwum."
Bullfrogs, in case you aren't aware, called Rana catesbeiana in academic circles, are noted for a lot of things. The big ones, up to eight inches, can sit by the side of a lake or pond and pick off small low-flying birds. Anything smaller, such as dragon flies, smaller frogs and toads, small snakes, crayfish, minnows and wandering mice and the like are easy prey. Frogs are a lot like cats. They can wait and wait and wait - without blinking. The bullfrogs in my small backyard pond are quite humorous. Most of the time they either float at the surface of the water while hanging nonchalantly by one leg onto a lily pad or other vegetation, or they sit in a half-submerged potted water plant. They think they are hiding and, for the most part they are, except when they "gunk." When it rains, several of them jump up on the wooden edge of the pond to "rain" themselves, apparently a frog's equivalent of sunning, although they do sun themselves the traditional way. Once in awhile a frog hops out of the pond, crosses a three-foot-wide stone path and investigates a 10-feet-by-10-feet flower garden for bugs. At least that's what I assume. Last year one of the larger frogs took a longer hike of about two hose lengths to a rose garden and took up residence in two tubs of bog plants: sphagnum moss, leatherleaf and bog rosemary. It was a surprise to hear his "gunk" so far from the ponds. Each fall the frogs in an above-ground pond migrate about 10 feet to an
The copyright of the article Backyard Bullfrog Gunk in Environment is owned by . Permission to republish Backyard Bullfrog Gunk in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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