the.com/leopard frog
A spotted athlete that mistook the meadow for the swamp and never looked back.
means A slender, long-legged North American frog marked with dark, light-edged spots, named for the leopard-like pattern on its green or brownish skin.
from A plain English compound from "leopard" + "frog," the leopard part borrowed long ago through French and Latin from Greek "leopardos" — itself "leon" (lion) joined to "pardos" (panther), reflecting an old belief that the cat was a lion-panther hybrid. So the frog wears, secondhand, the name of a beast born from a mistaken bestiary.
- jump range
- Can leap over six feet in one bound
- land lover
- Wanders far from water through grassy fields
- color shift
- Spots and skin tone vary wildly between individuals
- lab legend
- Long the classic dissection specimen in biology class
- vanishing act
- Many leopard frog populations crashed mysteriously since the 1970s
oregon spotted frog — critically endangered amphibian native to oregon wetlands, fewer than 8,000 remaining
red-legged frog — california native frog that inspired mark twain's 'the celebrated jumping frog of calaveras county'