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Pickerel frog

Lithobates palustris · Frogs and toads · Amphibians

Pickerel frog (Lithobates palustris): Tan back with two parallel rows of roughly rectangular dark spots (about seven pairs) plus a snout spot. Groin and base of hind legs yellow or orange (faint or absent in juveniles). This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Pickerel frog peering out of shallow creek water
Adobe Stock · Free asset, Standard License (asset 433714939)
Scientific name
Lithobates palustris
Family
Ranidae
In North America
Native
Range
Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec and New Brunswick/Nova Scotia west to Wisconsin and Missouri, south to South Carolina, northern Georgia, southern Mississippi and southeastern Texas; largely absent from Florida and southern Georgia.
Biology

How to identify it

Tan back with two parallel rows of roughly rectangular dark spots (about seven pairs) plus a snout spot. [1][2]

Groin and base of hind legs yellow or orange (faint or absent in juveniles). [1][2]

Light stripe along upper jaw; glandular ridge down each side; hind toes extensively webbed. [1][2]

Maximum about 8.7 cm snout-vent; call a low snore lasting 1-2 seconds. [1][2]

Compared with the northern leopard frog: Pickerel frog has squarish, parallel dorsal spots and a yellow-orange groin; Animal Diversity Web calls the two visually similar. [1][2]

Species it is confused with

Check these before deciding what you are looking at. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a pickerel frog before you act. Compared with the northern leopard frog: Pickerel frog has squarish, parallel dorsal spots and a yellow-orange groin; Animal Diversity Web calls the two visually similar.[1][2]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Freshwater and wetland habitats in wooded regions, from cool clear streams and ponds in the north to warm, turbid swamps in the south; in the south and midwest often tied to limestone caves for overwintering. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Gathers at water after hibernation; in summer commonly ranges into fields and woods away from water. [1][2]

Most active at night in the breeding season; hibernates in pond bottoms, caves or mines, later than the northern leopard frog. [1][2]

Skin secretions are distasteful; some predators reject it. [1][2]

Eats terrestrial insects and arachnids. [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec and New Brunswick/Nova Scotia west to Wisconsin and Missouri, south to South Carolina, northern Georgia, southern Mississippi and southeastern Texas; largely absent from Florida and southern Georgia.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology · reviewed 2026-09-30

    University of Michigan Museum of Zoology