Southern Leopard Frog Guide - New York Natural Heritage Program

In New York, southern leopard frogs occur primarily in open situations, including grasslands, wet meadows, grassy edges, shallow wetlands, and clear, slow-moving ditches. They may be found inland during the summer but in spring and fall they remain near water.

Associated Ecological Communities

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Deep emergent marsh*

A marsh community flooded by waters that are not subject to violent wave action. Water depths can range from 6 in to 6.6 ft (15 cm to 2 m). Water levels may fluctuate seasonally, but the substrate is rarely dry, and there is usually standing water in the fall.

* probable association but not confirmed
Ditch/artificial intermittent stream

The aquatic community of an artificial waterway constructed for drainage or irrigation of adjacent lands. Water levels either fluctuate in response to variations in precipitation and groundwater levels, or water levels are artificially controlled.
Eutrophic dimictic lake*

The aquatic community of a nutrient-rich lake that occurs in a broad, shallow basin. These lakes are dimictic: they have two periods of mixing or turnover (spring and fall); they are thermally stratified in the summer, and they freeze over and become inversely stratified in the winter.

* probable association but not confirmed
Eutrophic pond*

The aquatic community of a small, shallow, nutrient-rich pond. The water is usually green with algae, and the bottom is mucky. Eutrophic ponds are too shallow to remain stratified throughout the summer; they are winter-stratified, monomictic ponds.

* probable association but not confirmed

Intermittent stream*

The community of a small, intermittent or ephemeral streambed in the uppermost segments of stream systems where water flows only during the spring or after a heavy rain and often remains longer, ponded in isolated pools. These streams typically have a moderate to steep gradient and hydric soils.

* probable association but not confirmed
Sedge meadow*

A wet meadow community that has organic soils (muck or fibrous peat). Soils are permanently saturated and seasonally flooded. The dominant herbs must be members of the sedge family, typically of the genus Carex.

* probable association but not confirmed
Shallow emergent marsh

A marsh meadow community that occurs on soils that are permanently saturated and seasonally flooded. This marsh is better drained than a deep emergent marsh; water depths may range from 6 in to 3.3 ft (15 cm to 1 m) during flood stages, but the water level usually drops by mid to late summer and the soil is exposed during an average year.
Shrub swamp

An inland wetland dominated by tall shrubs that occurs along the shore of a lake or river, in a wet depression or valley not associated with lakes, or as a transition zone between a marsh, fen, or bog and a swamp or upland community. Shrub swamps are very common and quite variable.

Associated Species

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Fowler's Toad (Bufo fowleri)
Green Frog (Rana clamitans)

Pickerel Frog (Rana palustris)

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© 2004-2012 New York Natural Heritage Program, a partnership between
the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and
the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Please cite this page as:
New York Natural Heritage Program. 2013. Online Conservation Guide for Lithobates sphenocephalus. Available from: http://www.acris.nynhp.org/guide.php?id=6717. Accessed June 18th, 2013.