The northern leopard frog is one of the most wide-ranging amphibians in North America, but has undergone one of the most widespread and significant declines.  The frog’s habitat has been destroyed and degraded, poisoned, polluted, and drastically altered, leading to population declinces across its range and a grisly toll of deformities showing up in most frog populations.  The decline and imperilment of the western United States population of the northern leopard frog is one more chapter in the global decline of amphibians.  In the United States alone, 32 species are already listed as threatened or endangered, as candidates for listing, or have been petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act.  Of the 28 native frog species known from the entire United States, 19 have undergone major declines or suffered net population losses.  In the western United States, 100% of the known frog species are declining.  The major causes of frog declines include habitat loss and degradation, disease, water pollution, and climate change.

Center for Native Ecosystems has joined Biodiversity Conservaton Alliance and many other conservation partners in calling on the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the Western U.S. population of the northern leopard frog as a threatened species.  The petition was submitted in June of 2006.

Northern leopard frog.  Photo courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey.

The western leopard frog depends on wetland habitats, like this beaver pond in the Black Hills, which have declined significantly across the West.  Photo courtesy of Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.

Water pollution is causing deformities in leopard frogs across their range.  Photo courtesy of Pieter Johnson.