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Common frog can reach 2.4 to 3.5 inches in length and around 0.8 ounces of weight. Females are slightly larger than males.
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Common frog can be olive green, brown, grey-brown or yellowish colored. It has dark blotches on the legs and back, chevron-like marking on the back of the neck and dark patches behind the eyes. Bottom side of the body is white or yellow and sometimes covered with brown or orange speckles.
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Common frog has rounded snout, large eyes, robust body and short hind legs with webbed feet. Males have bluish-black hard swellings (called nuptial pads) on the fingers which facilitate gripping of females during the mating season.
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Common frog is mostly active during the day, but it can be also active during the night.
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Common frog is a carnivore. Its diet is based on insects, snails, slugs and worms. Common frog uses its long sticky tongue to catch the prey.
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Common frog doesn't drink water. It absorbs all required moisture via its skin.
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Common frog has moist skin which plays important role in breathing (half of the breathing is performed via nostrils, and other half via skin).
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Common frog has plenty of natural enemies because of its small size. Fish and birds usually hunt tadpoles and eggs, while stoats, weasels, gulls, ducks, storks, herons and snakes prey on adult frogs.
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Common frog hibernates during the winter in the canals, lakes, piles of rotten leaves or in the mud at the bottom of the pond.
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Mating season of common frogs starts at the beginning of the spring (as soon as they emerge from the hibernation).
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Males produce purring croaks during the mating season to attract females.
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Both males and females return to the same breeding grounds year after year. Those are usually the same areas where they were born.
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Females lay around 4000 eggs arranged in large clusters. Metamorphosis (transformation of tadpoles into young frog) lasts 12 weeks. Only 5 out of 2000 tadpoles manage to complete metamorphosis due to intense predation.
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Common frogs reach sexual maturity at the age of 3 years.
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Common frog can survive 7 to 8 years in the wild.
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