Reports of this frog’s decline have not been exaggerated
A frog whose call sounds like laughing. Listen here.
If you’re ever tromping through the California wetlands and spy a pair of small reddish legs leaping away or hear a croak that sounds like a rapid chuckle, congratulations! You’ve just found the California red-legged frog!
Frog in a frying pan
This long-leaping species starred in Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” During Twain’s time, California red-legged frog territory stretched from British Columbia all the way down to Baja California. The miners who scoured California in search of gold discovered that these amphibians were a reliable wilderness food source and ate them at a rate of about 80,000 frogs per year. The frogs that survived faced decades of habitat loss and predation by the invasive American bullfrog. Today, the red-legged frog is rarely spotted outside of a few select pockets in California and it’s listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
Spot this frog
You can identify the red-legged frog by the two-ridges running down its back, its freckled body, and of course, its reddish legs. Look for these frogs in slow-moving or still freshwater ponds, marshes, and streams. Tall grasses and shrubs are also a favorite hangout for these critters, who are not fans of excessive heat.
Or if you don’t feel like scouring California’s streams and marshes in search of this celebrated frog, you can see red-legged frogs at the Aquarium in their exhibit near the coastal stream. This freshwater exhibit area shows guests how all water flows into the ocean, and why it’s important to conserve the varied habitats along the way.
Our thanks to National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore for the wonderful images of our animals he created for his PhotoArk project!
