Frogs With Remarkable Ways of Living

In the temperate forests of Chile and Argentina, a male Darwin’s frog takes developing tadpoles into his vocal sac, the part of the throat used in calling. They complete their transformation there and emerge as froglets. This southern species is Endangered, with habitat loss and chytrid disease among its pressures.

Fast, cold streams along the Pacific side of North America are home to coastal tailed frogs. Their tadpoles have a broad mouth that grips submerged stones while they scrape food from the surface. The ability to hold fast lets them feed in the current instead of waiting for quieter water.

In slow waters in northern South America, eggs settle onto the female Surinam toad’s back. Skin grows around them, forming pockets in which the young develop. The offspring leave those pockets as small toads, having passed through development without a separate free-swimming tadpole stage.

This Endangered frog of India’s Western Ghats spends much of the year underground. At the start of the monsoon it comes up to breed in rocky streams. That short period above ground ties its reproduction to a narrow window when rain brings water back to its breeding sites.

Along streams in Cameroon, researchers found these large frogs using small pools for eggs and tadpoles. Some pools were cleared of debris, and others were edged with gravel and larger stones. Cameras also recorded an adult staying near a nest at night. Hunting and river habitat loss put pressure on this Endangered frog.

Breeding males of this Chinese mountain-stream frog grow a row of hard spines on the upper lip. The spines appear in the breeding season, when males compete for underwater nesting sites. Field researchers also observed males staying at nests with eggs, a role that can outlast the contest for a breeding site.

At shallow pools in Panama, túngara frogs lay eggs in a floating mound of foam. The pair beats air into a secretion to make the nest. The foam helps protect the eggs from drying and keeps the developing young in a moist space until they enter the water.

The male common midwife toad of western Europe carries strings of eggs wrapped around his hind legs. For much of their development he keeps them on land. When the young are ready to hatch, he takes the eggs to water so the tadpoles can continue growing there.

Females of this Sulawesi frog give birth to live tadpoles. The young can still swim and grow as tadpoles before becoming frogs. That makes its way of breeding different from species whose eggs hatch outside the mother and from live-bearing frogs whose young arrive as froglets.

Researchers found this frog by tracing its high calls to wet forest leaf litter in Papua New Guinea. The adult males they measured averaged just 7.7 millimeters from snout to rump. Young develop directly into froglets without a free-swimming tadpole stage, which lets the species spend its life in the litter rather than going to a pond to breed.

In this Central African frog, breeding males grow thin projections of skin along the sides and thighs. They look like hairs from a distance. The frog also has pointed bones at the ends of some toes that can protrude through the skin; researchers think they serve as a defense.

A Panamanian golden frog can use a wave of its forelimb as a signal alongside its calls. That gives it a way to communicate near noisy streams. Chytrid disease devastated wild populations, and in 2026 researchers announced a monitored trial in which captive-bred frogs were moved into outdoor pens.

Under ordinary light this South American tree frog is greenish with small spots. Under ultraviolet light, compounds in its skin and other tissues give off a blue-green glow. Researchers showed that fluorescence can contribute to its apparent brightness in twilight, although its role in the wild is still uncertain.