He assured me that he had seen examples from the latitude of Lake Okeechobee. Since in their 1949 Handbook of Frogs and Toads Wright and Wright had indicated that ornate chorus frogs were found throughout all of mainland Florida, perhaps the range had already shrunken dramatically by 1958. Today, I assure you, it has now shrunken even further with Duval, Alachua, and Levy counties seemingly being the southernmost range extremes in 2013.

Until 2010, coastal rains had been a bit more regular than inland rains, and breeding choruses of ornate chorus frogs were still heard in Levy County, Florida. Sadly those ephemeral sites were dry in 2011, 2012, and during early (the breeding season for ornate chorus frogs) 2013.



We are hoping that when the waters are again replenished, these ephemeral sites will once more resound with the strident peeping of this, the southeast's most beautiful chorus frog.

Author, photographer, and columnist Richard Bartlett is one of the most prolific writers on herpetological subjects in the 20th century. With hundreds of books and articles to their credit, Richard and his wife Pat have spent over four decades documenting reptiles both in the field and in captivity. For a list of their current titles, please visit their page in our bookstore.