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.
The boreal digging frog is common across much of its range, but is considered endangered 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.
Famous quotes containing the words boreal, digging and/or frog:
“No people require maxims so much as the American. The reason is obvious: the country is so vast, the people always going somewhere, from Oregon apple valley to boreal New England, that we do not know whether to be temperate orchards or sterile climate.”
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)
“While you continue to grow fatter and richer publishing your nauseating confectionery, I shall become a mole, digging here, rooting there, stirring up the whole rotten mess where life is hard, raw and ugly.”
—Norman Reilly Raine (1895–1971)
“An old pond—
a frog tumbles in—
the sound of water.”
—Matsuo Basho (1644–1694)