Southern Leopard Frogs are slender frogs, with long legs and sharply pointed heads. They are green or brown in color with a yellowish ridge along each side of the back. They have rounded dark spots on the back and sides and a light spot on each eardrum. The call is described as a “ratchet-like trill”, “chuckling croak”, or a “squeaky balloon-like sound”.
Wetland
Southern leopard frogs are found from New Jersey in the north and south through the Coastal Plain to Florida. The range extends westward through Kentucky, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, eastern Iowa, eastern Oklahoma, and eastern Texas.
Common
Nocturnal
Feed primarily on insects, crayfish, and other invertebrates
Southern leopard frogs are mostly nocturnal, but can be active during the day and the night, especially during rainfall. They hide during the day in vegetation at the edge of the water. When threatened, these frogs avoid predators by entering the water and swimming away. When on land jumps are high and in often in sequences of 3 at a time. Southern leopard frogs are solitary outside of the breeding season, when they occur in large breeding colonies.
Southern leopard frogs play a valuable role in the food chain. Birds, river otters, large fish, and many snake species prey on them. In turn, southern leopard frogs prey on smaller frogs, insects, and larvae.
Least Concern
