A Guide to California's
Reptiles and Amphibians

Sounds of Lithobates Pipiens - Northern Leopard Frog

(=Rana pipiens)

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Advertisement Calls

An advertisement call is the most well-known call of a frog. It is produced by a male during the breeding season to attract females of his own species. It can also serve an agressive function to defend his calling site by warning rival males of his presence. Frogs usually make the calls around bodies of water that are suitable for breeding and egg laying. These calls can be heard during the evening and at night, and sometimes during daylight at the peak of the breeding season.

The advertisement call of Rana pipiens is a low gutteral snore-like rattle, which has been compared to a small motor boat engine. These snores are accompanied by a number of different chuckles and croaks which function like encounter calls, having an aggressive or spacing function among males. Northern Leopard Frogs call mostly at night and sometimes during the day.

The following recordings were made at different times at the same location in Grant County, Washington (shown below.)

This is a 35 second edited recording of a Northern Leopard Frog calling during daylight in mid April at a pond in Grant County, Washington, with dry reeds and bird sounds in the background.

This is a 58 second unedited recording of Northern Leopard Frogs calling at night in mid April at a pond in Grant County, Washington, with loud Pacific Treefrogs and distant Great Basin Spadefoots calling in the background, and a few waterbird sounds.

This is a 1 minute 53 second unedited recording of Northern Leopard Frogs calling at night in mid April at a pond in Grant County, Washington, with loud Pacific Treefrogs and distant Great Basin Spadefoots calling in the background, and a few waterbird sounds.

This is a 45 second unedited recording of Northern Leopard Frogs calling at night in mid April at a pond in Grant County, Washington, with loud Pacific Treefrogs and distant Great Basin Spadefoots calling in the background, and a few waterbird sounds.

This is a 31 second edited recording of a distant frog calling on a sunny afternoon in late April in Grant County, Washington.

Waveform and Sonogram

This is a recording of the advertisement calls of a Northern Leopard Frog recorded during the day in Kittitas county, Washington. The image on the right is a visual representation of this call. Click on it to see a larger image. Click here for information about how to read the waveform and sonogram images.

Release Calls

A release call is produced by a male frog or an unreceptive female frog when a male frog or other animal gets on its back and grabs its sides in the position used for mating or amplexus. It's a frog's way of saying "Get off my back! Let go!"

This is a 5 second recording of the release calls, or grunts, of a Northern Leopard Frog.

This is a 1 second recording of a release call - a short squeak - of a Northern Leopard Frog.

Short Videos

Two videos of a Northern Leopard Frog calling on a sunny April afternoon in Grant County, Washington. Redwinged and yellow-headed blackbirds and other birds are heard in the background. Calling was sporadic over a long period of time, so these calls have been assembled from longer videos.		A few frogs in a breeding pond in Grant County, Washington.

You can listen to more recordings of Northern Leopard Frogs on this cd:

Carlos Davidson - Frog and Toad Calls of the Pacific Coast - Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

and on the cd that comes with this book:

Lang Elliott, Carl Gerhardt, and Carlos Davidson - The Frogs and Toads of North America - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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