This frog was dead in shallow water, found just after the ice melted on the pond. The frog shows the symptom called 'red leg,' which may rrepresent a bacterial infection due to a suppressed immune system, in turn possibly due to an unknown environmental stress. Leopard Frog numbers plummeted in Michigan in the 1960s and 1970s, and still have not fully recovered-- populations in lower mid-Michigan are unstable. It is not unusual to find dead Leopard Frogs in early spring; Green Frogs (Rana clamitans) living in this same habitat do not show this symptom or similar mortality.
