It typically prefers rich, weedy, warm ponds and lakes, slow-moving rivers, farm ponds and shallow marshes. They emerge from hibernation in early April, but do not begin to call or breed until June or July. Males are most active in the first 30 minutes after sunset. Calling frogs will sit in such a way that the yellow throat is exposed, using a set of four special calls to defend his established territory. If competing males ignore the warning calls, a defending male may splash, chase, or wrestle with his competitors.
Tadpoles spend the winter in the water and transform the following summer.
The tadpoles may grow to about six to eight centimetres long, but during transformation the froglets may end up smaller than they were as tadpoles.