Burrowing FrogRhinophrynus dorsalis

The Burrowing Toad or Mexican Burrowing Toad (Rhinophrynus dorsalis) is certainly one of the most unusual anurans found in North America.  They are completely bizarre looking frogs and are rarely seen by most people.

The are medium sized blobs of fleshy frog with a pointy little snout and beady black eyes.  They apparently spend most of their lives underground, only coming to the surface after heavy rains to breed in flooded pools and ponds.

Befitting their bizarre appearance is an equally bizarre call.  Their call is a deep ascending "whooooo" that doesn't even sound like a frog call.

These two Burrowing Toads were recorded in Starr County, Texas after some heavy rains in August, 2014.  They were calling from a flooded pool behind a barbed wire fence and so although I never saw the vocalists, there can be no doubt to their identity.



Rhinophrynus dorsalis call

Looking at the spectrogram for the first two of these calls, you can clearly see the deep ascending "whooooo" call of this species by the upward slurring lines. 

The background "noise" in the spectrogram is the snoring calls of the Rio Grande Leopard Frogs (Lithobates berlandieri) which can be heard in the recording as well.

 

Finally, in 2025, I was able to get down to the valley and get some photos and (lousy) video of one of these amazing frogs calling.  The change in their body shape at the peak of their call is hilarious.   Here's one in "full voice".   Their goofy pointy heads look even more ridiculous.

Here's my lousy video.  I forgot to focus on the frog, not the grass and forgot about the LED refresh frequency showing up on my video as well!   Oh well, you get the idea, at least.

Mexican Burrowing Frog calling with other species

 

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© Chris Harrison 2014 & 2025