The plateau brown frog or plateau wood frog (''Rana kukunoris'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

in the family Ranidae,

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the plateau region of western

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(northwestern Sichuan, eastern Qinghai, Gansu, and very northeastern Tibet). It was previously included in ''

Rana chensinensis The Asiatic grass frog or Chinese brown frog (''Rana chensinensis'') is a species of frog in the family Ranidae, found in China and Mongolia. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, intermittent rivers, swamps, freshwater lakes, intermitt ...

'' but it now considered a valid species. It is a common frog in suitable habitats that include alpine meadows, marshland and grassland. It hibernates in streams. It is not considered threatened by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

References

Rana (genus) Amphibians described in 1918 Amphibians of China Endemic fauna of China Taxa named by Alexander Nikolsky Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Ranidae-stub