Distribution and Conservation Status of the Newly Described Species of Leopard Frog in the Northeast

Summary

Following on the discovery that leopard frogs of NY, NJ, and CT were a distinct species, we received funding from the Regional Conservation Needs program to further study the newly described species. The objectives of our study (PDF, 4.6 MB) were to 1) Determine conclusively which leopard frog species occur presently and occurred historically in ten eastern U.S. states; 2) Refine the range of Rana kauffeldi relative to the two other leopard frog species; 3) Map new, potentially reduced, ranges for the two congeners; 4) Assess the species’ conservation status, particularly in areas where R. kauffeldi is already known to be of concern; 5) Contrast multi-level habitat associations among the three species; and 6) Improve upon the separation of species using acoustic and morphological field characters to facilitate future inventory, monitoring, and status assessments of the new species.

The species description was followed by our 10-state study culminating in a report and a second journal article.