How High Can Frogs Jump?

This is a great question, but a little bit tricky to answer because there is a lot of frog species and a lot of different body structures that fit in to certain ecological niches. Different frogs have different jump styles and tend to jump from certain locations giving them added bang for the buck.  To make a long story short, not all frogs and toads perform the same when jumping.  Think about UFC fighters, there is many different styles, sizes and skills to different fighters, this is pretty much the same in the frog world.

The largest jump in the world done by any frog with a confirmed species, was a 21 ft 5 in jump. This impressive leap was done by a species of frog, called the American Bull Frog.  Haha!  I know what you are thinking, a 21 ft jump is literally insane! How can a frog jump that high?  Well, to be honest the frogs didn't really jump that high.  The massive 21 ft that the frog jumped was actually done by jumping forward and it was the sum of 3 consecutive jumps together.  That means the frog was jumping an average of 7 feet per jump. These enormous jumps are not standard and usually happen when the animals owner is behind the frog blowing or tapping causing it to jump farther then normal. When they jump, they are actually not getting that high off the ground, maybe around 1.5 feet high, at max.

The same goes for other frogs, the majority of them don't jump straight up, but more like jump straight forward.  You can expect large frogs and tree frogs to jump approximately 1 foot forward and get a few inches height in their jump.  Toads and other chubbier types of frogs, like Pacman frogs, don't jump much at all, but can take small jumps forward if need be.  Dart frogs are really cute and take little tiny jumps about an inch or so as they patrol the ground for fruit flies. Don't forget defenders, the bigger and longer their legs, the better they will be at jumping.

So,when a frog jumps it is usually situational.  Which means they may jump farther if there is food around or if there is a predator coming to get them.  A tree frog may jump farther when it is higher up on a tree and even if they are being eaten, some toads won't jump at all.   Stay tuned for more awesome frog content and don't forget to head over to the Green Tree Frog tile in the kids zone to continue learning about frogs and other amphibians.