Frogs are well known for their hops, and their ability to leap impressive distances. But have you ever wondered how high frogs can jump?
In general, most frogs can jump about 10 times their height, and 5 to 20 times their body length. However, some frogs can jump up to 50 times their length.
Frogs with longer hind legs tend to have greater jumping ability than frogs with shorter hind legs.
How High Frogs Can Jump
The frog skeleton is unique compared to those of other land-based vertebrates. It has evolved over hundreds of millions of years to be specially adapted for jumping.
Frogs have elongated bones in their muscular back legs that enable them to jump high and far.
These amphibians can control their elongated hind legs with precision to achieve a wide range of jump angles, from nearly horizontal to almost vertical.
In addition, a frog’s radius and ulna are fused into a single bone, which acts as a shock absorber during the landing phase of a jump.
Frogs are so adapted for jumping that a frog can jump up to 10 times its own height!
During the landing phase, both forelimbs touch the ground and compact quickly to absorb most of the impact energy – and enable the frog to land smoothly on the ground.
How Far Frogs Can Jump?
It’s not only the height of a frog’s jump that is impressive. Frogs can jump at a wide range of angles.
In one study, scientists studying the jumping ability of frogs noted that some frog jumps were nearly horizontal, with the animals skimming over the ground. In other trials, the frogs rocketed upwards almost vertically.
When jumping forward, frogs can also leap impressive distances.
For example, American bullfrogs can jump up to 7 feet in a single leap, and Green tree frogs can jump over 10 feet!
In general, most frogs can jump from 5 to 20 times their body length, but some frogs can jump up to 50 times their length.
This is the human equivalent of jumping the length of a football field without a running start.
The Guinness World Record record for the longest leap by a frog relative to body size is held by the South African sharp-nosed frog (Ptychadena oxyrhynchus).
At the 1975 Calaveras County frog-jumping contest in California, USA, one of these frogs leaped 5.35 meters (17 feet 6 inches); which is more than 90 times its own body length.
Below Is a Table That Shows Approximately How Far 6 Frog Species Can Jump Relative to Body Size.
Frog Species |
Scientific Name |
Jumping Distance |
Body Size |
| American Bullfrog | Lithobates catesbeianus | 4 – 7 feet | 3.5-6 inches |
| Northern Leopard frog | Lithobates pipiens | 3 – 6 feet | 2 – 4 inches |
| Northern Cricket Frog | Acris crepitans | 3 – 6 feet | 0.5-1.25 inches |
| Pickerel Frog | Lithobates palustris | 3 -6 feet | 1.75-4 inches |
| Green Tree Frog | Hyla cinerea | 8 – 10 feet | 1.75-2.5 inches |
| Spring Peeper | Pseudacris crucifer | 1 – 1.5 feet | 0.7 to 1.2 inches |
Most frogs will have short jumps, with occasional long ones, and pauses in between jumps.
Additionally, some frogs may have a decrease in the length of jump over large distances, possibly due to fatigue.
Why Do Frogs Have Such Great Jumping Ability?
Frogs use their jumping ability for several important things:
1. Hunting
Frogs are carnivores and need to catch bugs and other prey. Their ability to jump at a wide range of angles is very important as they hunt insects.
With their great jumping ability, frogs also have long, sticky tongues to catch their prey.
A frog can shoot out its tongue, capture an insect, and pull it back into its mouth within 07 seconds -which is five times faster than the human eye can blink.
This speed makes it effective at catching bees, and even fast-flying insects like flies.
2. General Locomotion
Jumping is an efficient way for frogs to move around in a complex environment.
As earlier mentioned, some frog species can leap over 10 feet in a single jump, which enables them to quickly move from one place to another.
3. Predator Avoidance
Jumping enables frogs to quickly escape predators.
If a semi-aquatic frog such as a Pickerel frog (Lithobates palustris), sees a predator getting too close, it can use its powerful hind legs to quickly leap into the water and dive to the bottom to hide.
When a frog is not close to a body of water, it can make quick erratic hops to confuse and distract the predator, giving the frog enough time to escape.
Not All Frogs Move by Jumping
Although frogs are well known for hopping, they can move in a variety of different ways.
In general, frogs and toads move by jumping, swimming, climbing, walking, or even gliding – depending on the species or the environment.
Frogs such as the Common Rain Frogs (Breviceps adspersus) found in southern Africa have a round body and short arms and are not able to jump or swim.
Instead, these frogs move by walking or running. They are also excellent at burrowing and spend most of their time buried underground.
The Frogs That Can Fly
Some frogs, such as those of the genus Rhacophorus, are known as ‘flying frogs’ or ‘gliding frogs’. These frogs can go long distances at a fast pace, by ‘flying’,
They don’t truly fly, as birds or bats do. What they do is glide—somewhat like humans piloting a hang glider.
When threatened or in search of prey, flying frogs launch their lightweight bodies from a high branch into the air. They spread out their large webbed feet and hands, as well as special flaps of skin on their legs and arms.
These membranes of skin act like miniature parachutes to slow the frog’s descent
Some flying frogs glide as far as 40 or 50 feet to a neighboring tree branch or even all the way to the ground. They also have oversized toe pads to help them land softly and stick to tree trunks.
Gliding is an energy-efficient way to quickly move from one place to another.
Common Questions:
Can all frogs jump?
Although most frogs can jump, this is not the case for all species. Some frogs such as the Common Rain Frogs of Southern Africa have short arms and legs – and cannot jump. Instead, these frogs move by walking or running.
Featured image credit: Brian Gratwicke, (CC BY 2.0(
Sources:
Jingcheng Xiao, Feng Lin, Yao Li, Bing Li, Xiaojun Yang,On the kinematics of forelimb landing of frog Rana rugulosus, Journal of Biomechanics, Volume 121, 2021, 110417, ISSN 0021-9290, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2021.110417.
Rand, A. S. (1952). Jumping Ability of Certain Anurans, with Notes on Endurance. Copeia, 1952(1), 15–20. https://doi.org/10.2307/1437615
Cynthia Bix and Diana Landa (1996). Flying Frog: Glider in the Treetops. Animal Athletes: Olympians of the Wild World (PDF).