Frogs jump much higher and further than their body length/size, and also frequently do this in environments where there are obstacles in their way, e.g. grass and other vegetation. In particular, they frequently take a whole bunch of jumps in rapid succession and end up in a place far removed from where they started.
Are they jumping blindly and just landing wherever they land, or do they have some ability to figure it out (perhaps in mid-flight)?
I’ve had little green frogs jump off a tree on to me. I’m assuming they don’t want to get to know me better, or maybe to just hitch a ride.
I’m going with no, they have no idea.
We have a bowl of water out on the back porch for the dogs. One day I went out there to find a pretty good sized frog floating in the bowl. He couldn’t get out til I helped him out. So, I’m gonna say no. Or at least, they don’t know the consequences of where they might land.
When I was a kid I would sometimes see bullfrogs jump from a creek bank up onto a flat rock where they would sun themselves. There are small green treefrogs in my backyard now that will jump from branch to branch in the gardenia and rhododendron bushes by my back patio and never miss. Those actions seem deliberate.
Perhaps most often when a person comes upon a frog it gets startled and jumps wildly from fear(away from predator!) and those experiences lead to confirmation bias.
In Beck’s case it is probably her magnetic charm that attracts them
Several years ago, a treefrog jumped off my patio door right into the middle of my face. It was cold and wet, its belly was on my nose, its front feet were on my eyelids, and its back feet were on my cheeks. I was laughing as I peeled it loose, and was glad it didn’t pee on me! Nearly jumping into the mouth of what a frog ought to perceive as a potential predator gives more anecdotal bias toward the notion that they often have no idea where they are going to land.
If they cannot control the direction or power of a leap, it would seem to be a big gap in motor control of their legs. I suspect that they can control the leap length and direction under normal circumstances. But a fear/flight mechanism may just launch them in forward direction and furthest distance under abnormal circumstance.
I often saw frogs by ponds and creeks as a child sitting within jumping range of the water, usually facing it. They were apparently ready to return to the water if they sensed danger, like my approach. But some didn’t face the water, they faced other directions yet could still turn and jump directly into the water without a perceptible delay. So they seemed to try to control the direction of their leap to a known place. But I don’t recall a frog ever failing to take a substantial leap in any direction to avoid perceived danger either.
We’re really talking about two different kinds of “hops” here. One is the type of short hop when a frog is just moving from place to place, heading for a breeding pond, or approaching a mate, rival, or prey animal, or moving about tree branches. These will be directional, and the frog will calculate where it’s going to land.
The other type is the very long escape leaps taken to avoid a predator. These can be directional, as in the case of a pond being close by. Otherwise they may be taken at random, just to get as far as possible from the predator. In fact, it may be beneficial to take an escape leap in a random direction so the predator can’t anticipate it.
some small mammals explore and memorize escape paths – when chased, they run off faster than they can see, process, and step, because they’ve already memorized the foot placement.
I tried bing to see if any frogs do the same, but all I get is computer terms about escape sequences and paths.