Historical Range in California: Red
Dot-locality range map
Listen to this frog:
A short example
More sounds of
Rana pipiens
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Adult, green phase, Grant County, Washington |
Adult, brown phase, Grant County, Washington |
Adult, green phase, Grant County, Washington |
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Adult, Grant Co., Washington |
Adult, Grant Co., Washington |
Underside |
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Adult, brown phase, Grant County, Washington |
Adult, green phase, Grant County, Washington |
Groin of adult |
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Adult, green phase, Grant County, Washington |
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Tule Lake, 4,100 ft., Siskiyou county - site of one of the most recent records for non-introduced R. pipiens in California.
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Introduced habitat - agricultural canal, Merced County
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Former Habitat, Owens River,
Inyo County
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You can see more pictures of this frog's habitat in Washington here.
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Description |
| Size |
| A medium-sized slender frog. Adults are 2 - 4 3/8 in. long from snout to vent (5.1 - 11.1 cm). Females are larger - males grow up to 3 1/8 in. (8 cm). |
| Appearance |
Green, tan, or brown above, with dark brown oval spots with well-defined edges and pale borders. Creamy white below,
without any dark pigmentation. Cream-colored well-defined dorsolateral folds extend from the shoulders to the rump.
The upper jaw has a whitish stripe. Young have few or no spots. Tadpoles are brown or grey with small gold spots, creamy
below with a bronzy sheen and visible guts, and grow up to 3.5 in. in length (8.9 cm.) |
| Voice (Listen) |
| A low gutteral snore-like rattle, which has been compared to a small motor boat engine. Calls at night and during the day. |
| Behavior |
| Often screams when captured or when startled as it jumps into water. Very well-adapted to cold conditions. May stray far from water in summer into a variety of habitats including hay fields and grassy woodlands, as long as there is sufficient vegetative cover for concealment. |
| Diet |
Eats invertebrates, leeches, fish, amphibians, snakes, and small birds. Typical of most frogs, the prey is located by vision, then a large sticky tongue is used to catch the prey and bring it into the mouth to eat. Eating takes place out of the water.
Tadpoles graze on plant tissue and bacteria by scraping plant surfaces with their mouth parts. Algae and detritus and possibly carrion are also consumed. |
| Reproduction |
Calling, mating and egg-laying occurs from March to June after snow melts in shallow water in vegetated areas. Fertilization is external. Eggs are laid in densely-packed, flat, rounded clusters the size of a grapefruit - around 4.5 in. (11.5 cm) in diameter, and are attached to vegetation underwater.
Transfromed froglets are about 1 inch. long. (2.5 cm.) |
| Range |
Native to California, but also introduced in California (and throughout the west) in the past 100 years, possibly partly due to escapees from widespread use in biology classes.
The overall range of this species is from most of southern Canada, across most of the northern United States, with scattered locations in the northwest, south in the west through Arizona and almost to the Mexican border in New Mexico. From sea level to 11,000 ft. (3,350 m.)
Historical populations in California existed in scattered locations below 6,500 ft. (1981 m.) in the far Northeast
part of the state, in Siskiyou and Modoc counties, in the northern Owens Valley, and possibly near Lake Tahoe. The origin of the lake Tahoe population is questionable, because leopard frogs were transplanted from a reservoir in Nevada to the southwest shore of Lake Tahoe in the early 20th century, in order to provide a source of fresh frog legs for a local restaurant. (Jennings 2004)
Jennings and Fuller determined in their 2004 report on the distribution of leopard frogs in California that Northern leopard frogs are "...native to the region east of the Sierra nevada-Cascade crest.... Early in the 20th century (Northern leopard frogs) expanded their ranges into favorable habitats created by water diversions and large-scale irrigation projects. Since the 1970s, northern leopard frogs seem to have disappeared from most of their historic range.... Northern leopard frogs of unknown origin were introduced into El Dorado, Kern, Los Angeles, Merced, San Francisco, Sierra, Tehama, and Tulare counties between 1905 and 1970. Several of these introduced populations experienced rapid growth and range expansions before completely disappearing. Except for a small population of northern leopard frogs present in Merced County, all of these introduced populations have apparently perished after persisting for varying periods of 5 -25 years. " |
| Habitat |
Inhabits grassland, wet meadows, potholes, forests, woodland, brushlands, springs, canals, bogs, marshes, reservoirs.
Generally prefers permanent water with abundant aquatic vegetation. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
| This frog has been renamed Lithobates pipiens, but this nomenclature is not yet standard. |
| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| Absent from about 95 percent of its range in California. Possibly extirpated. Recent records are from one national wildlife refuge near the Oregon border and in the Owens Valley, northwest of Bishop. Most of the habitat previously inhabited in the Modoc and Owens regions have been severely altered by grazing, and introduced predators such as bullfrogs, crayfish, and exotic fishes may have negatively affected R. pipiens. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Ranidae |
True Frogs |
| Genus |
Rana |
True Frogs |
| Species |
pipiens |
Northern Leopard Frog
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Original Description |
Schreber, 1782 - Naturforscher, Vol. 18, p. 185, pl. 4
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Rana - Frog - "Rana" probably mimics how the Romans heard their call.
pipiens - Latin - peeping - the collector heard Spring Peepers, collected this species thinking that the loud whistle came from the larger frog.
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Lithobates pipiens
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Related or Similar California Frogs |
Rana draytonii
Rana aurora
Rana boylii
Rana cascadae
Rana pretiosa
Rana catesbeiana
Rana yavapaiensis
Rana sierrae
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
AmphibiaWeb
Jennings, Mark R., and Michael M. Fuller. 2004. Origin and distribution of leopard frogs, Rana pipiens complex, in California. California Fish and Game 90(3):119-139.
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., & F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Macey, J. Robert and Theodore Papenfuss."Herpetology." The Natural History of the White-Inyo Range Eastern California.
Ed. Clarence Hall. University of California Press, 1991.
Corkran, Charlotte & Chris Thoms. Amphibians of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Lone Pine Publishing, 1996.
Jones, Lawrence L. C. , William P. Leonard, Deanna H. Olson, editors. Amphibians of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle Audubon Society, 2005.
Leonard et. al. Amphibians of Washington and Oregon. Seattle Audubon Society, 1993.
Nussbaum, R. A., E. D. Brodie Jr., and R. M. Storm. Amphibians and Reptiles of the Pacific Northwest. Moscow, Idaho: University Press of Idaho, 1983.
Conant, Roger, & Joseph T. Collins. A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians Eastern and Central North America.
Third Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.
Davidson, Carlos. Booklet to the CD Frog and Toad Calls of the Pacific Coast - Vanishing Voices. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, 1995.
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The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game.
These listings are labelled as refering to native, not introduced, California populations (however, the Natureserve and IUCN Global rankings are obviously for non-California populations.)
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Organization
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Status Listing
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
None |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
None |
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| California Department of Fish and Game |
DFG:SSC |
California Species of Special Concern |
| Bureau of Land Management |
None |
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| USDA Forest Service |
USFS:S |
Sensitive |
| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
G5 |
Secure |
World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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IUCN:LC |
Least Concern |
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