Minnesota Seasons - American Bullfrog

Conservation • Description • Habitat • Ecology • Distribution • Taxonomy

Conservation Status

Photo by Jeff LeClere

IUCN Red List

LC - Least Concern

NatureServe

N5 - Secure

S4 - Apparently Secure

Minnesota

not listed

Description

Size

Total length: 4″ to 6¾″ (10 to X cm)

Voice

ARMI - Frog and Toad Calls

A deep low note, usually described as a “rrum”, repeated once a second five or more times, the last two or three times stuttered. The calls can be heard up to a quarter mile away from early June through July.

Similar Species

Habitat

Warm, still, permanent bodies of water, including lakes, ponds, and river oxbows and backwaters

Ecology

Behavior

Lifespan

7 to 9 years

Life Cycle

Tadpole Food

Algae, plant tissue, organic debris

Adult Food

Adult and larval insects, spiders, slugs, snails, fish, turtles, small birds, small snakes, rodents, smaller frogs—any animal that can fit in its mouth.

Distribution
		Sources 6, 7, 14, 24, 29, 30, 73, 76, 78. Biodiversity occurrence data published by: Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas (accessed through the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas Portal, bellatlas.umn.edu, 11/21/2025).
11/21/2025

Occurrence
Widespread and abundant in eastern United States.

Taxonomy

Class

Amphibia (amphibians)

Subclass

Lissamphibia (modern amphibians)

Superorder

Batrachia (amphibians)

Order

Anura (frogs and toads)

Suborder

Neobatrachia

Superfamily

Ranoidea

Family

Ranidae (typical frogs)

Genus

Lithobates (American water frogs)

Genus

In 2006, Frost et al. transferred most North American true frogs from the genus Rana to Lithobates, a controversial decision initially met with resistance. While Stuart, Pauly et al., and other systematic reviews rejected the change in 2008 and 2009, the transfer has since gained near-universal acceptance by 2024. Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI), GBIF, NatureServe, and iNaturalist all use the name Lithobates catesbeianus.

In 2016, a consortium of Rana researchers from Europe, Asia, and North America showed that transferring the species to Lithobates caused problems of paraphyly in other genera. In that same year, Yuan et al. returned all North American true frogs to the genus Rana, using subgenera for all of the well-defined species groups within Rana. AmphibiaWeb uses the name Rana catesbeiana.

A recent article (Dubois, Alain et al., 2021) proposed a new “phylogenetic taxonomy and nomenclature” of extant amphibians (subclass Lissamphibia). In the proposed taxonomy, the subgenus Aquarana is raised to full species rank, and Lithobates catesbeianus becomes Aquarana catesbeiana. Amphibian Species of the World, ITIS, NCBI, Catalog of Life, and UniProt use the name Aquarana catesbeiana.