How High Can Frogs Jump And How Do They Do It?

Nature enthusiasts have many questions. There are many fascinating creatures globally, and frogs are some of the most exciting and unique. You may have wondered many things about frogs, including their physical and mobile abilities. One of the questions we have often heard about these fascinating creatures is how high can a frog jump? Even more notably, how are they able to achieve these jumps. We did the research and came up with loads of interesting information.

How High Can A Frog Jump?

First, let’s get to the most direct answer to how high frogs can jump. The answer depends on the frog species, but frogs can clear twice their own height at a minimum.

Other frogs, like tree frogs, are far superior in their jumping abilities, achieving a jump of as much as ten times their height.

I’ve studied frogs for a long time, and research across many species indicates that most frog species can jump two times their height.

It may not come as a significant surprise that smaller species (more lightweight) can jump higher, as with the previously mentioned tree frog can clear ten times their height.

Where frogs excel is at how far they can jump, rather than how high. The impressive length of their leaps greatly overshadows the height of their jumps, even if it’s very impressive.

How Far Can A Frog Jump?

Frog species have varying physical structures that make the length of their jumps vary from one to another.

In playing the averages, it safe to say that most frog species can leap up to 30 times the length of their bodies, while smaller frogs (like the tree frog) can achieve a distance of 50 times their own length, which is quite an impressive feat.

For perspective, if a human could do this, they would jump the lengths of a football field without a running start.

Some species can surpass even that amazing measurement. For instance, frogs belonging to the Rhacorphorus genus, an Asian species often referred to as gliding or flying frogs, have the added physical attributes of webbed toes that they utilize much in the same way parachutes act for humans skydivers. The webbing ends up slowing the frog’s descent, meaning that the leap can garner even further distances while the frog ‘glides’ to a landing.

How Does A Frog Jump?

There is a common (though erroneous) belief that the reason for a frog’s ability to cover such great jump lengths is due to the power of its leg muscles.

The truth is that a frog’s leg muscles are nowhere near powerful enough to be able to grant them these impressive achievements. The actual reason frogs can jump is due to their tendons.

As a frog’s body readies to make a jump, the tendons expand to their maximum capacity. This action, in turn, shortens the leg muscles, and the energy from those muscles is transferred to the stretched tendons.

When the frog leaps, this energy is transferred to the flexible physical structure recoils much in the same way as a spring, leading to a front being able to clear such noteworthy lengths and heights.

Another interesting tidbit about a frog’s physical makeup is that nearly a quarter of the frog’s weight is in its legs, which helps to understand further why the tendons can propel its body as far as they do.

After many years of research, researchers Thomas Roberts and Henry Astley finally answered the mystery behind frog jumps when he and his research colleagues were able to capture a frog jumping on film at 500 frames per second.

Henrey Astley Documenting how frogs jump – Mike Cohea/Brown University.

Not only did this help them slow down the video enough to witness the frog jumping by leveraging X-ray cameras in the process, but they were also able to witness the above-described tendon actions, leading them to uncover the mysterious frog ability.

Do Frogs Hop Or Leap?

Some may wonder if what frogs do is considered jumping or hopping? The answer is that both are applicable, and the most significant determining factor to the distinction is between short and long-legged frogs.

Long-legged species jump to cover large distances as a matter of travel and self-preservation to escape from predators. On the other hand, short-legged frogs cannot clear large spaces with their movement, so they hop to progress from one location to another. Toads are more proficient at hopping for mobility than frogs are.

If you’re interested in learning more about the difference between frogs and toads, read here.

Can A Frog Jump Out Of Water?

Frogs are amphibians, meaning that they need to be out of the water for at least some time to sustain their survival (hunting for prey) and sustain their species (mating). Since frogs can do neither of these behaviors in the water, they need regularly jump out of the water.

If frogs live in a body of water with vertical sides, you can often observe them clinging to the sides in attempts to jump out, as vertical surfaces are not conducive to their jumping style.

Housing a frog in such a place is inadvisable as it gives the frog little ways to get out of the water, and as they need to do so to survive, not getting out means death by either starvation or drowning.

To helps frogs get out of the water, there are a few things you can do:

Building a ramp: For instance, laying a strip of expanded metal in the pond can give a frog a semi-horizontal space to leverage for escaping out of the water. For a more natural look, a long piece of driftwood sticking out of the water works well.
Place a rock near the edge: A rock gives frogs the ability to cling onto something as they climb out. They can jump to the rock and then quickly exit the pond from the rock’s surface.

Why Do Frogs Jump?

The primary reason for a frog’s jump is to escape from predators. Frogs’ bodies are not good at mobility equivalent to walking or running, so they use their inherent ability to escape danger by quickly clearing large distances, making it hard for predators to follow them quickly enough.

Frog jumps during predator escapes are not even linear. They jump in zig-zag patterns to confuse and make it more challenging for their would-be hunter to follow them by making the direction of their escape unpredictable.

How Do Frogs Move?

This is a complex question because different frog species move in their distinct way. Toads, for instance, hop from one location to another, while a flying tree frog can climb vertical surfaces, then leaps from a high point and glides to its destination.

Overall, frogs have two primary movements:

Swimming: In the water, a frog uses its strong hind legs with webbed feet to maneuver through the water by pushing off and propelling itself forward.
Land mobility: On land, a frog pushes itself forward through the above-described process by using the recoiling tendons to launch it into spectacularly long distances.