Southern California Reptiles and Amphibians
Southern California is a very diverse place. Because of this many reptile and amphibian species live and depend on the various habitats. This is a list of all native and invasive species found in Southern California.
Arroyo Toad
The arroyo toad (Anaxyrus californicus) (syn. Bufo californicus), is a stocky, blunt-nosed, warty-skinned species of toad, between 5 and 7.5 cm long. It has horizontal pupils, and is greenish, grey or salmon on the dorsum with a light-colored stripe across the head and eyelids. It has light sacral and mid-dorsal patches, large, oval and widely-separated parotoid glands, ...more ↓
Great Plains Toad
The Great Plains toad (Bufo cognatus) is a relatively large species of toad. It ranges from southern Alberta, throughout the midwest United States and the inland western United States into northern Mexico.
Arizona Toad
Arizona Toad (Anaxyrus microscaphus) is a species of toad in the Bufonidae family. It is endemic to the United States.
Red-spotted Toad
The red-spotted toad (Bufo punctatus) is a small toad species growing to 3.7 to 7.5 centimeters in length. It has a flattened head and body, and a light grey, olive or reddish brown dorsum with reddish or orange skin glands. It has a whitish or buff venter with or without faint dark spotting, and round parotoid glands. Its snout is pointed.
Woodhouse's Toad
The Woodhouse's Toad, (Bufo woodhousii) is a medium-sized (4 inches or 10 centimetres) true toad, which is native to the United States and Mexico. There are two recognized subspecies. The epithet woodhousii is in honor of the American physician and naturalist Samuel Washington Woodhouse.B. woodhousii tends to hybridize with Bufo americanus in their ...more ↓
Colorado River Toad
The Colorado River toad, Bufo alvarius, also known as the Sonoran Desert toad, is a psychoactive toad found in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. Its skin and venom contain 5-MeO-DMT and bufotenin.
Northern Leopard Frog
The northern leopard frog (Lithobates pipiens) is a species of leopard frog from the true frog family, native to parts of Canada and United States. It is the state amphibian of Minnesota and Vermont.
Lowland Leopard Frog
The Lowland Leopard Frog, (Lithobates yavapaiensis), is a species of frog in the Ranidae family that is found in Mexico and the United States; in Spanish it is known as rana de Yavapai. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, rivers, intermittent rivers, freshwater lakes, and freshwater marshes. It is not considered threatened by the IUCN.
Baja California treefrog
The Baja California chorus frog (Pseudacris hypochondriaca) is a species of treefrog of Western North America. The species was formerly considered the part of the Pacific chorus frog (Pesudacris regilla), but split and raised to species status in 2006. The species ranges from the West Coast of the United States from Baja California through southern California. Individuals ...more ↓
California Treefrog
The California tree frog or California chorus frog (Pseudacris cadaverina) is a "true" tree frog (family Hylidae) from southern California (USA) and Baja California (Mexico). Until recently, the California tree frog was classified in the genus Hyla.
Foothill Yellow-legged Frog
The foothill yellow-legged frog (Rana boylii) is a small-sized 3.72–8.2 cm (1.46–3.2 in) frog from the Rana genus in the Ranidae family. This species can be found from northern Oregon, down California’s west coast, and into Baja California, Mexico. Both the Columbia spotted frog and the Cascades frog, also part of the Rana genus, live in the northern regions ...more ↓
California Red-legged Frog
The California red-legged frog, Rana draytonii, is a species of frog, that is now endemic to California. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the northern red-legged frog (Rana aurora). The frog is an IUCN vulnerable species, and a federally listed threatened species of the United States, and is protected by law.
Southern Mountain Yellow-legged Frog
The mountain yellow-legged frog or southern mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa) is a species of true frog endemic to California in the United States. It occurs in the mountain ranges of Southern California up to the southern Sierra Nevada. It is a federally listed endangered species.
Western Spadefoot
The western spadefoot toad (Spea hammondii) is a relatively smooth-skinned species of spadefoot toad. Its eyes are pale gold with vertical pupils. It has a green or grey dorsum often with skin tubercles tipped in orange, and it is a whitish color on the ventrum. It has a wedge-shaped black spade on each hind foot. Adult toads are between 3.8 and 7.5 cm (1.5 and 2.95 inches) ...more ↓
Rio Grande Leopard Frog
The Rio Grande leopard frog (Lithobates berlandieri) is a species of aquatic frog native to the southern United States in Texas and New Mexico, and south through Mexico and Central America. It is also sometimes referred to as the Mexican leopard frog. The epithet berlandieri is in honor of the Belgian naturalist Jean Louis Berlandier, who worked for the Mexican ...more ↓
American Bullfrog
The American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus), often simply known as the bullfrog in Canada and the United States, is an aquatic frog, a member of the family Ranidae, or “true frogs”. This species has traditionally been classified as Rana catesbeiana, however the classification has been changed to Lithobates due to paraphyly in Ranidae. This frog has an ...more ↓
Southern Leopard Frog
The Southern Leopard Frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus) is a species of mostly aquatic true frog, found in the south-eastern third of the United States. There are two accepted subspecies.
African Clawed Frog
The African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis, also known as the xenopus, African clawed toad, African claw-toed frog or the platanna) is a species of African aquatic frog of the Pipidae family. Its name is derived from the three short claws on each hind foot, which it uses to tear apart its food. The word Xenopus means "strange foot" and ...more ↓
California Tiger Salamander
The California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) is a vulnerable amphibian native to Northern California. Previously considered to be a tiger salamander subspecies, the California tiger salamander was recently designated a separate species again. The California tiger salamander distinct population segment (DPS) in Sonoma County is listed as federally endangered and in ...more ↓
Arboreal Salamander
The arboreal salamander, Aneides lugubris, is a species of climbing salamander. It is native to California and Baja California, where it is primarily associated with oak and sycamore woodlands, and thick chaparral.
Gabilan Mountains Slender Salamander
The Gabilan Mountains slender salamander (Batrachoseps gavilanensis) is a species of salamander in the Plethodontidae family. It is endemic to California, in Monterey and San Benito, and San Luis Obispo Counties in the western United States.
San Gabriel Mountains Slender Salamander
The San Gabriel slender salamander (Batrachoseps gabrieli) is a species of salamander. It has a worm-like body, a large head and large limbs, and an elongate cylindrical tail of less than 1.5 times its body length. An adult salamander is between 3 and 5 cm long. It has a black dorsum with white, coppery, and orange blotches, and an immaculate black venter. It may have red spots ...more ↓
Gregarious Slender Salamander
The gregarious slender salamander (Batrachoseps gregarius) is a species of salamander in the Plethodontidae family, endemic to California, in Tulare County in the western United States.
San Simeon Slender Salamander
The San Simeon slender salamander (Batrachoseps incognitus) is a species of salamander in the Plethodontidae family.
Santa Lucia Mountains Slender Salamander
The Santa Lucia Mountains slender salamander (Batrachoseps luciae) is a species of salamander in the Plethodontidae family.
Garden Slender Salamander
The garden slender salamander (Batrachoseps major) is a species of salamander in the Plethodontidae family. It is found in northern Baja California in Mexico and Southern California in the United States.
Lesser Slender Salamander
The lesser slender salamander (Batrachoseps minor) is a species of salamander in the Plethodontidae family.
Black-bellied Slender Salamander
The black-bellied slender salamander, Batrachoseps nigriventris, is a small species of salamander that is endemic to California.
Channel Islands Slender Salamander
The Channel Islands slender salamander (Batrachoseps pacificus) is a species of salamander in the Plethodontidae family. It is endemic to California in the United States.
Relictual Slender Salamander
The relictual slender salamander (Batrachoseps relictus) is a species of salamander in the Plethodontidae family. It is endemic to California, found only a small area in Kern County, California.
Kern Plateau Slender Salamander
The Kern Plateau salamander, Batrachoseps robustus, is a species of salamander in the Plethodontidae family, endemic to California, in Tulare and Inyo, and Kern Counties in the western United States....
Kern Canyon Slender Salamander
The Kern Canyon slender salamander (Batrachoseps simatus) is a plethodontid salamander .
Tehachapi Slender Salamander
The Tehachapi slender salamander (Batrachoseps stebbinsi) is a plethodontid salamander, and one of the larger members of genus Batrachoseps. It is endemic to California, in Kern County in the western United States.
Yellow-eyed Ensatina
Ensatina eschscholtzii (commonly known by its genus name, Ensatina) is a complex of plethodontid (lungless) salamanders found in coniferous forests, oak woodland and chaparral from British Columbia, through Washington, Oregon, across California (where all seven subspecies variations are located), all the way down to Baja California in Mexico.
California Newt
The California newt or orange-bellied newt, with scientific name Taricha torosa, is a newt found mainly in California, Western North America.
Sierra Newt
The Sierra newt, with scientific name Taricha sierrae, is a newt found west of the Sierra Nevada, from Shasta county to Tulare County, in California, Western North America.
Western Tiger Salamander
The barred tiger salamander or western tiger salamander (Ambystoma mavortium) is a species of mole salamander found from southwestern Canada in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, south through the western United States to Texas and northern Mexico.
