Blanchard's Cricket Frog (Acris blanchardi), listed as Endangered in Wisconsin, prefers ponds, lakes, and a variety of habitats along and adjacent to streams and rivers including marshes, fens, sedge meadows, low prairies, and exposed mud flats. This species may breed in no or low-flow areas of streams and rivers but primarily breeds in adjacent ponds, lakes, and wetlands. Cricket frogs cannot tolerate prolonged exposures to freezing or submersion during the winter, therefore seek a variety of microhabitats that provide suitable overwintering conditions, including crayfish burrows, small mammal burrows, rotted-out root channels, seepage areas where groundwater flow prevents freezing at the surface or spaces created by sloughing stream banks. Cricket frogs are active from early-March through November. Breeding can occur from mid-May through mid-August, with some larvae not transforming until late-September. See the species guidance document for avoidance measures and management guidance from the Natural Heritage Conservation Program.
