Animal
Northern leopard frog
This frog has big dark spots, like a leopard. It lives near ponds and hops into meadows in summer.
The northern leopard frog is a spotted green or brown frog of Canada and the northern United States. It lives in and near marshes, ponds and slow streams, and in summer it often moves out into wet meadows and fields, which is why people also call it the meadow frog or grass frog. In spring, males call with a deep, rattling snore, and each female lays hundreds or thousands of eggs.
Lithobates pipiens (family Ranidae) ranges from Great Slave Lake and Hudson Bay in Canada south to Kentucky and New Mexico, with a patchy distribution in the west. It breeds in shallow, still, permanent water and uses open upland habitats in summer. The IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group listed it as Least Concern (assessed 3 August 2021, published 2022), with a decreasing population trend: it is widespread and common, but has disappeared from most of its former localities in the Rocky Mountains and apparently from most of its former range in Washington state.
Photo: Brian Gratwicke, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the northern leopard frog
This frog is green or brown.
It has big, round, dark spots on its back and legs.
It has a white line on its lip.
The northern leopard frog is a medium-sized frog, green or brown, with large, round, dark spots on its back, sides and legs. Each spot has a pale ring around it. Two light-colored folds of skin run down its back, and a white line runs along its upper lip.
Grown-ups are about 5 to 9 centimeters long from the snout to the end of the body, and females are larger than males.
The Missouri Department of Conservation describes a brown or green ground color with large, round, black or reddish-brown spots ringed with light color; wide, cream or tan dorsolateral folds running continuously to the groin; a prominent white upper-lip line; a rusty-brown tympanum, usually without a light central spot; and a white belly. Adult snout-vent length is 2 to 3.5 inches, occasionally 4.5 (MDC); Animal Diversity Web gives 5 to 11.1 cm. Females are larger; males have thickened thumb pads and paired vocal sacs that inflate over the shoulders (ADW).
Quick facts
- Group
- Amphibian
- Length
- 0.05 to 0.09 m
- Lifespan in the wild
- 4 to 5 years
Ponds in spring, meadows in summer
These frogs live near ponds and marshes.
In summer they hop into grassy fields.
In winter they rest under the water.
Northern leopard frogs live in and near springs, slow streams, marshes, ponds, lakes and flooded ditches, usually where the water is shallow and full of plants. In summer they often move out into open places like wet meadows, fields, pastures and even lawns.
In autumn they head back to permanent water. They spend the winter at the bottom, under the water or in the mud.
IUCN habitat: springs, slow streams, marshes, bogs, ponds, canals, flood plains, reservoirs and lakes, usually permanent shallow water with rooted aquatic vegetation; in summer, relatively open upland habitat such as wet meadows and fields. Inactive frogs take cover underwater, in damp niches or in caves, and usually overwinter underwater. MDC notes long movements between breeding wetlands and summer grassland, a move to permanent water in autumn, and winter retreat to the bottom or into mud; the names meadow frog and grass frog come from summer moves into pastures and lawns.
Continent
Its habitats
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
From Great Slave Lake and Hudson Bay in Canada south to Kentucky and New Mexico; patchy in the west, where it has also been introduced in many places (IUCN). Leopard frogs in Sinaloa, Mexico, and in Panama are thought to be other species (IUCN).
Places: Canada and United States.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked November 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama, Belize and 8 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
Bugs, worms and snails
Leopard frogs eat bugs, spiders and worms.
Their tadpoles eat algae in the water.
Grown-up leopard frogs eat small animals that live on land: insects and their young, spiders, slugs, snails and earthworms. Big adults may even eat smaller frogs.
Their tadpoles eat mostly plant food, such as algae, which they filter from the water or scrape off surfaces.
Adults take terrestrial invertebrates: spiders, insects and their larvae, slugs, snails and earthworms; large adults may also eat small vertebrates such as smaller frogs. Tadpoles are mainly herbivorous, eating algae, diatoms and small animal matter filtered from the water or scraped from surfaces (ADW). MDC lists insects and spiders and notes that frogs, especially their eggs, tadpoles and froglets, are in turn food for many predators, from water bugs and fish to grackles and raccoons.
Did you know?
Its eggs get bigger when they touch water.
A leopard frog egg is about 1.7 millimeters across when it is laid, but it swells to about 5 millimeters in the water.
Eggs about 1.7 mm at laying, swelling to 5 mm on contact with water (ADW).
Spots for hiding, legs for leaping
Its spots help it hide in the grass.
If danger comes, it jumps into the water!
Leopard frogs do not have bad-tasting skin. Instead, their spotted coloring helps them blend in among plants, and when a predator comes close they leap into the water or make sudden, unpredictable hops to get away.
Herons, fish, snakes, raccoons, bullfrogs and many other animals hunt them.
Leopard frogs lack distasteful skin secretions; they escape by leaping into water or with erratic hops, and their coloration is cryptic in vegetation. Where they live alongside pickerel frogs, which have distasteful secretions, their spots are squarish, and it is thought they may mimic pickerel frogs. Known predators include bass, pike, herons, green frogs, bullfrogs, garter and water snakes, hawks, gulls, raccoons, foxes, mink and otters (ADW).
From egg clump to froglet
The mother lays a big clump of eggs in a pond.
Tadpoles hatch and swim.
They grow legs and turn into little frogs.
In spring, leopard frogs gather at breeding ponds. A female lays 300 to 6,500 eggs in round clumps stuck to plants under the water, in shallow water that gets plenty of sunshine. Then the eggs are left to grow on their own.
The eggs hatch after one to three weeks, depending on how warm the water is. The tadpoles turn into froglets 2 to 3 centimeters long after 70 to 110 days, and they are grown up in 1 to 3 years.
Breeding is at communal ponds in spring (March to June, peaking in April; ADW); in Missouri, late March to mid-April (MDC). Eggs are laid in globular clusters, generally attached to vegetation just below the surface of shallow, still, permanent water well exposed to sunlight (IUCN); 300 to 6,500 per female (ADW; MDC: up to 6,000). Eggs about 1.7 mm swell to 5 mm in water; hatching after 1 to 3 weeks (MDC: 7 to 20 days), varying with temperature; metamorphosis after 70 to 110 days at 2 to 3 cm; maturity in 1 to 3 years. Parental investment ends once the eggs are attached (ADW).
Snores and chuckles
Male frogs call to find a mate.
Their song sounds like a snore!
In spring, males call to attract females; in Missouri they start at dusk, from open water in marshes and shallow ponds. Their call is a deep, rattling snore with a few clucking grunts. The Missouri Department of Conservation says it sounds like rubbing a wet thumb slowly along a blown-up balloon!
Outside the breeding season, leopard frogs live alone, but they do not mind other leopard frogs nearby. They are active from about March to October.
Male advertisement calls are a low, rumbling snore with occasional clicks and croaks; males and unreceptive females give a chuckle-like release call when clasped (ADW). In Missouri, males call from dusk in open water of marshes or shallow ponds (MDC). Solitary but tolerant outside breeding; males hold small calling territories at the breeding pond; most active at night in the breeding season and by day when foraging (ADW). Active March to October (MDC).
Did you know?
This frog is the state amphibian of two US states.
The northern leopard frog is the official state amphibian of Vermont and Minnesota.
State amphibian of Vermont and Minnesota (MDC).
Common, but gone from some places
There are lots of leopard frogs.
But in some places they have gone away.
Clean ponds and marshes help them.
The northern leopard frog is listed as least concern: it lives across a huge area, and there are probably hundreds of thousands or even millions of them. But its numbers are going down. It has disappeared from most of the places where it once lived in the Rocky Mountains, and apparently from most of its old range in Washington state.
Threats include the loss of wetlands, the catching of many frogs, and in some places probably bullfrogs and other animals brought in by people.
Least Concern (IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group; Global; assessed 3 August 2021, published 2022; trend decreasing): large extent of occurrence, many subpopulations and localities, large population; decline probably not near 30 percent in 10 years or three generations. Declines since the 1960s or earlier: no longer at most historical localities in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, apparently gone from most of its historical range in Washington, largely gone from the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem; local losses in Alberta and British Columbia. Threats: habitat loss, commercial over-exploitation, in some areas probably competition or predation by bullfrogs and other introduced species. More than 600,000 were traded live in the US for research and teaching in 2001 to 2009 (Herrel and Van der Meijden 2014, via IUCN).
IUCN Red List
How is the northern leopard frog doing in the wild?
- Least Concern (this animal)
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Least Concern
Not at risk of disappearing from the wild right now.
Amazing facts
-
This frog's call sounds like a snore!
A male's call is a deep, rattling snore. It sounds a bit like rubbing a wet thumb slowly along a blown-up balloon.
Advertisement call: a deep, rattling snore with occasional clucking grunts (MDC).
-
Leopard frogs spend the winter under the water.
In autumn, leopard frogs move to permanent water and spend the winter at the bottom.
Overwinters underwater, at the bottom of permanent water or in mud and debris (IUCN; MDC; ADW).
-
This frog is the state amphibian of two US states.
The northern leopard frog is the official state amphibian of Vermont and Minnesota.
State amphibian of Vermont and Minnesota (MDC).
-
Its eggs get bigger when they touch water.
A leopard frog egg is about 1.7 millimeters across when it is laid, but it swells to about 5 millimeters in the water.
Eggs about 1.7 mm at laying, swelling to 5 mm on contact with water (ADW).
Words to know
- tadpole
- a young frog that lives in water
- froglet
- a tiny young frog that has just changed from a tadpole
- eardrum
- the round, flat patch of skin behind a frog's eye that it hears with
- marsh
- a wet, low area where grasses and reeds grow in shallow water
- camouflage
- colors or patterns that help an animal blend in with what is around it
- least concern
- not currently at serious risk of dying out in the wild
Discovery challenge
-
Where does a leopard frog spend the winter?
Where do northern leopard frogs spend the winter?
Where does Lithobates pipiens usually overwinter?
- Under the water
- High in a tree
- In a bird's nest
Show the answer
Under the water
Under the water!
In autumn they move to permanent water and spend the winter at the bottom.
Usually overwinters underwater (IUCN), on the bottom or in mud (MDC).
-
Why are this frog's spots helpful?
How do a leopard frog's spots help it?
What is the main defensive role of the leopard frog's coloration?
- They help it hide among plants
- They make it poisonous
- They keep it warm
Show the answer
They help it hide among plants
They help it hide!
Its skin is not bad-tasting; its spotted coloring helps it blend in among plants.
Cryptic coloration; no distasteful skin secretions (ADW).
-
What does a male leopard frog's call sound like?
What does a male northern leopard frog's call sound like?
How is the advertisement call of Lithobates pipiens usually described?
- A snore
- A whistle
- A bark
Show the answer
A snore
A snore!
It is a deep, rattling snore with a few clucking grunts.
A low, rumbling snore with occasional clicks and croaks (ADW; MDC).
-
Where do leopard frogs often go in summer?
Why are northern leopard frogs also called meadow frogs?
Which habitat does Lithobates pipiens commonly use in summer, giving it the name meadow frog?
- Grassy meadows and fields
- Sandy beaches
- Snowy mountain tops
Show the answer
Grassy meadows and fields
Grassy meadows!
In summer they often move into wet meadows, fields, pastures and lawns.
Open upland habitats such as wet meadows and fields (IUCN; MDC).
Places where you might see it
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Watch
Country
Canada
Canada is the second-largest country in the world, stretching across the north of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific and up into the Arctic. It has the Rocky Mountains, thousands of islands and about 42 million people, who speak English, French and many other languages.
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Watch
Country
United States
The United States is a large country in North America made of 50 states, from icy Alaska to the warm islands of Hawaii. It has the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River and Yellowstone, and about 342 million people live there.
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Canada
Canada is the second-largest country in the world, stretching across the north of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific and up into the Arctic. It has the Rocky Mountains, thousands of islands and about 42 million people, who speak English, French and many other languages.
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American green tree frog
The American green tree frog is a bright green frog of the southeastern United States, often with a pale stripe along each side. It lives in swamps, marshes and plant-filled pond edges, spending much of its life up in plants, and each finger and toe ends in a round, sticky pad. It is busy mostly at night, when males call a loud, nasal 'guank, guank'.
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Amazon milk frog
The Amazon milk frog is a large tree frog that lives high in the treetops of the rainforest in northeastern South America. It is active at night, has big golden eyes, and lays its eggs in pools of rainwater trapped in holes in trees, where its tadpoles grow up.
For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Describe how to recognize a northern leopard frog.
- Explain how a leopard frog uses different places in spring, summer and winter.
- Describe the stages from egg to grown frog.
- Name two threats to northern leopard frogs.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might a frog with bad-tasting skin be brightly colored, while a leopard frog is spotted green and brown?
- Why do you think leopard frogs lay so many eggs?
- Why might a frog that uses ponds, meadows and deep water need all three kinds of places nearby?
Try at home or in class
- Spot the frog: draw a green frog with dark spots, cut it out and hide it on a green, spotted paper 'meadow'. How fast can someone find it?
- Life-cycle wheel: draw an egg clump, a tadpole, a tadpole with legs, a froglet and a grown frog around a paper plate, then turn a pointer to tell the story.
Key vocabulary: tadpole, froglet, eardrum, marsh, camouflage, least concern
Where these facts come from
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- Lithobates pipiens (IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, assessed 3 August 2021, published 2022) , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Lithobates pipiens: taxonomy, justification, range, population, habitat, threats, trade and conservation text , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Lithobates pipiens: IUCN Red List global assessment record (IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group 2022), IUCN checklist on GBIF , GBIF
- Northern Leopard Frog (field guide) , Missouri Department of Conservation
- Lithobates pipiens (Tanya Dewey) , Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology
- File:Lithobates pipiens.jpg (Brian Gratwicke, 3 July 2011, near Ottawa) , Wikimedia Commons
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.