The Tarahumara frog (''Lithobates tarahumarae'') is a species of

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 found in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and—formerly—the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, where it is now regionally extinct. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are streams and plunge pools in canyons in oak and pine-oak woodland, and foothill thorn scrub and tropical deciduous forest in the Pacific coast tropical area. Permanent water is necessary for reproduction. The decline of Tarahumara frog populations has many reasons and may include chytridiomycosis and

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

. The Tarahumara are a well-known indigenous tribe from the Copper Canyon of northern Mexico.

References

Lithobates Amphibians of Mexico Amphibians of the United States Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Amphibians described in 1917 {{Ranidae-stub