Primary prey items include earthworms, spiders, beetles, crickets, other small insects, and sometimes other frogs.

Measurements

Usually 2.5 to 3.5 in. (maximum 4.25 in.)

Gopher frogs are tan to gray and have warty, or even wrinkled-looking, skin. Gopher frogs are marked irregularly on their backs and bellies with brown or black spots. They have a raised ridge down each side of their body. Like all true frogs, they have large eardrums and webbed hind feet, with very wide heads in comparison to their body.

Males use mating calls that sound like a deep snore, to attract females.

Gopher frogs typically breed or live in isolated, temporary freshwater wetlands, which are referred to as breeding ponds. Examples of these naturally occurring ponds include Carolina bays, limesinks, flatwoods ponds and other related
features. Typical breeding ponds are isolated from flowing streams, particularly any inflows. Occasionally such ponds will have what's referred to as an outflow stream that only flows when exceptionally heavy rains fill the pond above full pool. Adults spend most of their lives in terrestrial habitats as fossorial, or underground, species, inhabiting crayfish holes, root channels, rodent burrows and other subterranean structures. They move to breeding ponds in late winter where they deposit eggs. The aquatic larva of these species may spend several months in a pond before metamorphosing to the adult form. Newly metamorphosed individuals move away from breeding ponds; they only return to these ponds when they become reproductively mature adults.

Adult gopher frogs shelter primarily in gopher tortoise burrows found in xeric, or dry, upland habitats, but will also use other subterranean areas. These underground areas provide safety from predators and a stable environment which prevents them from drying out. These secretive frogs will leave the burrow to forage during the nighttime.

Gopher frogs in northern Florida typically breed between October and April, with peak activity after heavy rains in February and March. In central and southern Florida, gopher frogs may breed year-round following heavy rains. Prior to the breeding season, the frogs will relocate to a wetland habitat. They can travel up to 1.2 miles between upland and wetland habitats. During this time, male frogs stay at the seasonally flooded ponds for about a month waiting for females to come and lay eggs. The males will use mating calls, which sound like a deep snore, to attract females. Females lay one cluster of eggs per breeding season containing thousands of eggs. Eggs hatch in about four to five days, and the tadpoles live in the ponds for three to seven months until they transform into frogs. The juvenile gopher frogs will then disperse back into the xeric habitat to repeat the cycle all over again. Typically, gopher frogs live between four and five years.