About the Chiricahua Leopard Frog

The Chiricahua leopard frog looks like the type of frog that you would find hopping on your patio or hiding in one of your flowerbeds. Chances are you won't find one there. The frog is an endangered species due to unchecked environmental factors, diseases, and predators in the wild. One of its unique traits is a mating call that it only croaks while it is under water.

  1. Characteristics

    • The Chiricahua leopard frog or "lithobates chiricahuensis" is a stocky, fist-sized amphibian. Its length is approximately 4.3 inches. It is distinguished by its snore-like croaking, a salt-and pepper pattern on the back of its thighs, and rough skin on its back and sides. The frog has back rear or "dorsolateral" folds on its hind legs. The Chiricahua is a mixed pallet of brown and olive green with dark brown spots covering its body. The Chiricahua's eyes are set high on its head.

    Habitat

    • For many years, the frog flourished in wetlands alongside the Gila River and in the central and southern mountains and valleys of Arizona. In the early 1990s, however, the population of the Chiricahua leopard frog began to drop dramatically. As of 2011, it could still be found in streams and brooks where predators were scarce. It could also be found in stock tanks and other manmade bodies of water. The Chiricahua leopard frog breeds in deep pools and calm water. When predators are abundant, breeding diminishes.

    Diet

    • The frog feeds on insects, fresh-water shrimp, several different invertebrates and small vertebrates. They will even consume juveniles of their own species. Chiricahua tadpoles in the wild eat green algae, bacteria, phytoplankton and duckweed. In captivity, Chiricahua tadpoles are fed spinach, cucumber slices, rabbit pellets and romaine lettuce.

    Threatened

    • The Chiricahua leopard frog once inhabited over 400 rivers, streams and lakes in the southwestern United States. By June, 1998, the number of sites had dwindled to only 80. In 2002, the Endangered Species Act categorized the Chiricahua leopard frog as "threatened." In Arizona, it is against the law to harass, hunt, pursue, harm, wound, trap, capture or shoot this species. Predators such as bullfrogs, fishes, and crayfish are one of the direct causes of the decline in the Chiricahua leopard frog population. Pesticides, fungal disease and elevated ultraviolet radiation have also taken their toll on the frog's numbers in the wild.