All Utah Frogs & Toads — Species List

Utah hosts 16 species of frogs and toads, from desert canyon walls to mountain meadow springs. Use this index as your starting point — each entry gives you the essentials for identification in the field. Species marked with ⚠ carry notable conservation designations; those marked with ✦ are non-native or invasive.

Four species have full detail pages with in-depth natural history, photos, and range maps: Boreal Chorus Frog, Canyon Treefrog, Columbia Spotted Frog, and Great Basin Spadefoot. You can also use our frog calls sound ID guide to identify Utah species by ear.

Habitat and range details vary considerably by elevation and region. See our Utah frog habitats guide for a deeper look at where these species live, and visit conservation status and threats for the full picture on at-risk species.

True Frogs — Family Ranidae

Large-bodied, long-legged, and mostly aquatic. Ranids are the frogs most people picture: smooth or slightly textured skin, prominent dorsolateral ridges, and powerful hind legs built for swimming.

American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) ✦

  • Size: 9–20 cm — Utah's largest frog by a wide margin
  • ID features: Uniformly green to olive-brown; no dorsolateral ridges; enormous tympanum (eardrum) clearly visible behind the eye
  • Range in Utah: Widespread at lower elevations statewide, especially along the Wasatch Front, Colorado River drainage, and warm-water ponds
  • Standout fact: Non-native to Utah, the bullfrog outcompetes and preys on native frogs wherever it becomes established — a leading driver of native amphibian decline across the West

Green Frog (Lithobates clamitans) ✦

  • Size: 6–10 cm
  • ID features: Bright green to bronze with prominent dorsolateral ridges running partway down the back — the key distinction from bullfrog
  • Range in Utah: Localized, primarily along the Wasatch Front where introduced populations persist
  • Standout fact: An eastern species brought west through the pet trade; populations in Utah are small and poorly documented compared to the bullfrog

Columbia Spotted Frog (Rana luteiventris) ⚠

  • Size: 4.5–10 cm
  • ID features: Brown to olive with irregular dark spots; eyes upturned; salmon-pink to orange wash on the underside of the hind legs
  • Range in Utah: Northern and central mountains — Uinta Basin, Bear River Range, and scattered high-elevation wetlands
  • Standout fact: A cold-water specialist that breeds earlier than almost any Utah amphibian, often while ice still edges its ponds; listed as a sensitive species due to habitat loss and competition from bullfrogs

Full profile: Columbia Spotted Frog

Northern Leopard Frog (Lithobates pipiens)

  • Size: 5–11 cm
  • ID features: Green or brown with large, rounded dark spots ringed in pale borders; white dorsolateral ridges; pale underside
  • Range in Utah: Widespread but patchy — marshes, streams, and irrigated meadows across much of the state below alpine zones
  • Standout fact: One of Utah's most recognizable frogs; populations have declined sharply in many areas due to chytrid fungus, drought, and bullfrog predation

Relict Leopard Frog (Lithobates onca) ⚠

  • Size: 4.5–8.5 cm
  • ID features: Similar to northern leopard frog but smaller, with more irregular spotting and a pinkish belly; spots lack distinct pale borders
  • Range in Utah: Extirpated. Historically occurred near St. George in Washington County; now known only from a handful of sites in Nevada and Arizona
  • Standout fact: One of North America's rarest frogs — Utah lost its only populations decades ago, likely through a combination of bullfrog introduction and water diversion

Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus)

  • Size: 3.5–8 cm
  • ID features: Tan to reddish-brown; distinctive dark "robber's mask" across the eye and tympanum; cream-colored underside
  • Range in Utah: Extreme northeastern corner — forested areas of the Uinta Mountains near the Wyoming border
  • Standout fact: The only frog found north of the Arctic Circle; Utah sits at the far southwestern edge of its range and sightings here are uncommon

Treefrogs — Family Hylidae

Small, agile, and often heard before they're seen. Utah's hylids include two very different frogs: one built for desert canyons and one for mountain meadows. Both produce outsized calls relative to their modest size.

Boreal Chorus Frog (Pseudacris maculata)

  • Size: 2–4 cm — tiny, even by treefrog standards
  • ID features: Gray, tan, or olive-green with three dark stripes down the back (sometimes broken into spots); a bold dark stripe through the eye; small toe pads
  • Range in Utah: Mountains and foothills statewide — most abundant across the Wasatch, Uintas, and plateaus above 1,500 m
  • Standout fact: Often the first amphibian to call in spring, its rasping trill filling mountain meadows while snow still patches the ground; one of Utah's most abundant native frogs despite its diminutive size

Full profile: Boreal Chorus Frog

Canyon Treefrog (Dryophytes arenicolor)

  • Size: 3–5.5 cm
  • ID features: Cryptic gray to buff with dark blotches; skin rough and granular; large adhesive toe pads; no eye stripe (unlike Pacific treefrog)
  • Range in Utah: Southern and eastern canyon country — Colorado River drainage, Canyonlands, Zion, Capitol Reef, and rocky desert drainages
  • Standout fact: A desert specialist that hides in rock crevices by day and descends to canyon pools at night; its explosive, sheep-like bleat is one of the defining sounds of Utah's canyon country after dark

Full profile: Canyon Treefrog

True Toads — Family Bufonidae

Stocky, warty, and terrestrial for most of the year. Bufonids carry toxic skin secretions (safe to handle with clean hands, toxic if ingested) and are among Utah's most drought-tolerant amphibians.

Great Plains Toad (Anaxyrus cognatus)

  • Size: 5–11 cm
  • ID features: Gray or tan with large, symmetrically paired dark blotches bordered in pale; prominent cranial crests meeting at a boss between the eyes; large parotoid glands
  • Range in Utah: Eastern and southeastern Utah — Great Plains grasslands and adjacent desert edges
  • Standout fact: Its call is a prolonged, deafening mechanical trill that can last 50 seconds or more; choruses near irrigation ponds can be heard from over a kilometer away

Red-Spotted Toad (Anaxyrus punctatus)

  • Size: 3.5–7.5 cm — Utah's smallest true toad
  • ID features: Flattened body; round, small parotoid glands (not elongated like other species); reddish or orange-tipped warts on a gray-tan background
  • Range in Utah: Southern Utah canyon country and the lower Colorado River corridor
  • Standout fact: Its flat profile is an adaptation for squeezing into narrow rock crevices; it breeds in temporary pools after desert rains and is often heard calling from canyon walls at night

Woodhouse's Toad (Anaxyrus woodhousii)

  • Size: 6–13 cm
  • ID features: Pale stripe down center of back; elongated parotoid glands; cranial crests prominent and touching the parotoid glands
  • Range in Utah: Widespread at lower and middle elevations — riparian corridors, irrigated fields, suburban areas, and sandy flats statewide
  • Standout fact: One of Utah's most adaptable amphibians; readily uses culverts, irrigation channels, and backyard ponds, making it among the few native amphibians holding steady in developed areas

Black Toad (Anaxyrus exsul)

  • Size: 4.5–7 cm
  • ID features: Striking — nearly black overall with white spotting; males especially dark; superficially unlike any other Utah toad
  • Range in Utah: Extremely marginal — possibly occurs in far western Utah near the Nevada border; core range is Deep Springs Valley, California
  • Standout fact: One of the most range-restricted vertebrates in North America, confined to a single valley; its presence in Utah is unconfirmed but plausible along the state's western edge

Arizona Toad (Anaxyrus microscaphus)

  • Size: 5–8 cm
  • ID features: Pinkish, tan, or pale gray with poorly defined blotching; cranial crests weakly developed; parotoid glands oval and not strongly keratinized
  • Range in Utah: Southwestern Utah — Washington County and portions of the Virgin River drainage
  • Standout fact: Closely tied to clear, gravelly streams in the Mojave Desert transition zone; hybridizes with Woodhouse's toad where ranges overlap, making identification in contact zones genuinely tricky

Spadefoot Toads — Families Scaphiopodidae & Pelobatidae

Not true toads at all — spadefoots are in their own family and are actually more closely related to treefrogs. They are defined by a single, hard "spade" on each hind foot used for rapid backward burrowing. Built for desert life, they may spend the majority of the year underground.

Great Basin Spadefoot (Spea intermontana)

  • Size: 4–6.5 cm
  • ID features: Gray-green with small pale tubercles; a glandular boss between the eyes (not a hard lump like other spadefoots); vertical pupil; sickle-shaped spade on hind foot
  • Range in Utah: Great Basin region of western and central Utah; also occurs at middle elevations across the Colorado Plateau
  • Standout fact: Explosive breeder — after monsoon rains, adults emerge in mass, breed in temporary pools, and tadpoles must metamorphose within as few as two weeks before pools evaporate

Full profile: Great Basin Spadefoot

Plains Spadefoot (Spea bombifrons) ⚠

  • Size: 4–6 cm
  • ID features: Similar to Great Basin Spadefoot but with a hard, bony boss between the eyes rather than a soft glandular knob; more reddish-brown overall
  • Range in Utah: Extreme eastern Utah — sandy grasslands and desert edges of the Colorado River Basin near the Colorado and Wyoming borders
  • Standout fact: Listed as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need in Utah; populations are small and localized, dependent on intact native grassland and unpredictable summer thunderstorms

Mexican Spadefoot (Spea multiplicata) ⚠