The natural enemies include young of the copperhead. The bullfrog and leopard frog probably take heavy toll of both the adults and the newly metamorphosed young at the breeding ponds. Reproductive success of the ant-eating frogs was much greater in 1954 when these ranids were unusually scarce. The short-tailed shrew is an important enemy. On occasion it took heavy toll of frogs trapped in pitfalls, and many of the larger adults were scarred or mutilated from bites, probably of the shrew.
Each of several frogs was found consistently under the same rock for periods of weeks. The hundreds of other frogs that were marked were rarely found twice in any one spot. Usually an individual recaptured after weeks or months was still near the original site. In many instances the distance involved was only a few yards, but there is some evidence that home ranges may be as long as 400 feet in greatest diameter. Of those caught in two or more different years only 15 per cent were shown to have moved more than 400 feet. These few exceptionally long movements, up to 2000 feet, involve shifts in home range or migrations motivated by reproductive urge.
LITERATURE CITED
Anderson, P.
1942. Amphibians and reptiles of Jackson County, Missouri. Bull. Chicago Acad. Sci., 6: 203-220.
Anderson, P. K.
1954. Studies in the ecology of the narrow-mouthed toad, Microhyla carolinensis carolinensis. Tulane Studies in Zool., 2: 15-46.
Blair, A. P.