CreatureData

Boreal digging frog

Kaloula borealis (Barbour, 1908)

LCLeast Concernfrogs and toads

The boreal digging frog (Kaloula borealis) is a species in the family Microhylidae, order Anura. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Boreal digging frog (Kaloula borealis)
Photo: Pierre Fidenci · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the boreal digging frog

Weight
Not recorded
Length
up to 5.02 cmsrc for Length
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Invertivoresrc for Diet
Longest recorded lifespan
10 years
Main food
arthropodssrc for Main food
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Reproduction
Eggssrc for Reproduction
Active
At night (nocturnal)src for Active
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
Not recorded

Where does the boreal digging frog live?

Not recorded

What is the boreal digging frog?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The boreal digging frog (Kaloula borealis) is a species of microhylid, or "narrow-mouthed," frog found in Northeast Asia. Its range covers much of central and northeastern China, the Korean Peninsula, and Jeju Island. Adult boreal digging frogs are roughly 4.5 cm in length, round in shape with toad-like speckled skin. Tadpoles are up to 35 mm (1.4 in) in length.

The boreal digging frog is common across much of its range, but is listed as an "Endangered category II species" in South Korea. It inhabits cultivated fields, including rice paddies, and is often found in close proximity to humanity, at altitudes of 10 to 900 m.

Boreal digging frogs breed during the annual rainy season, around June and July. After the rainy season is over they dig burrows underground, emerging only at night to feed. The eggs are laid in batches of 15–20 in monsoonal pools, with the tadpoles maturing within 30 days, much faster than most other frogs in this area.

From the Wikipedia article “Boreal digging frog” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Boreal_digging_frog&oldid=1327831657), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the boreal digging frog endangered?

The boreal digging frog is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.

How is the boreal digging frog classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAmphibia
  4. orderAnura
  5. familyMicrohylidae
  6. genusKaloula
  7. SpeciesKaloula borealis (Barbour, 1908)

Synonyms Cacopoides borealis, Cacopoides tornieri, Cacopoides tornieri, Callula tornieri, Kaloula manchuriensis, Kaloula tornieri, Kaloula tornieri, Kaloula wolterstorffi

Other names and names in other languages (8)
  • Manchurian narrowmouth toadEnglish
  • Manchurian narrowmouth toadEnglish
  • parosnička mandžuskáCzech
  • ジムグリガエルJapanese
  • 맹꽁이Korean
  • Дальневосточная бычья лягушкаRussian
  • 北方狭口蛙Chinese
  • 北方狹口蛙Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the boreal digging frog

Other species in the same genus Kaloula.

CompareBoreal digging frog vs Banded bullfrogBoreal digging frog vs Brown bullfrogBoreal digging frog vs Kalinga narrowmouth frogBoreal digging frog vs Truncate-toed chorus frog

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

Is the boreal digging frog endangered?

The boreal digging frog is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What does the boreal digging frog eat?

Its recorded main food is arthropods.

What kind of animal is the boreal digging frog?

The boreal digging frog (Kaloula borealis) belongs to the family Microhylidae in the order Anura.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Boreal digging frog (Kaloula borealis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/boreal-digging-frog

MLA

“Boreal digging frog (Kaloula borealis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/boreal-digging-frog.

BibTeX
@misc{boreal_digging_frog_2026,
  title = {Boreal digging frog (Kaloula borealis)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/boreal-digging-frog},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}