Distribution:
They can be found in south-central Kansas through Oklahoma and into eastern Texas, east into western Louisiana, and west-central Arkansas along the Arkansas River. Other disjunct populations occur in west-central and southwest Illinois, southeastern Missouri, and northeastern Arkansas. In Kansas, it is known from south-central Kansas from southeast Pratt and southwest Kingman, south into Oklahoma. It is particularly abundant in areas with sandy soils.
(,   Museum Voucher) (,   Observation) (,   Literature Record) (,   iNat Record), (  Fossil)
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Full range depicted by light shaded red area. Export Google Earth (.kml)

• Occurrence Summary:  
• 279
  Records 
• 97
  Museum Vouchers 
• 182
  Other Observations 

Some county occurrences indicated below may be too imprecise to map above.
County Breakdown: County Name (# occurrences):
Barber (47); Harper (183); Kingman (19); Pratt (30);

Fossil History:
Not known from Kansas.

Natural History:
The fossorial Strecker's Chorus Frog is nocturnal, spending the day burrowed in the soil or under vegetation. Unlike most burrowing frogs, which back into the loose substrate using their hind legs, the Strecker's Chorus Frog burrows with its forelimbs and enters headfirst.
They can be found in a variety of habitats including open woodlands and rocky ravines, with a preference for sand prairies fields in Kansas.
Gray (1982) and Gray and Stegall (1986) investigated this frog in southcentral Kansas, and the first available information on the species in Kansas was based on their observations.
Although Strecker's Chorus Frog is found in a wide variety of habitats, it primarily resides in open areas such as sand prairies and cultivated fields and in the ditches, streams, marshes, and pools that border these places. It may be active throughout the year when weather is favorable. Stegall (1977) first reported this frog from Kansas. He obtained two examples from Harper County on 30 April. Gray (1982) reported the first specimen of Strecker's Chorus Frog from Barber County.
It emerges following early spring rains and moves to flooded fields, ditches, small ponds, and vernal pools to breed. The call of the Strecker's Chorus Frog is a series of clear, high-pitched single-note whistles. A large chorus of Strecker's Chorus Frogs has been described as "a rapidly turning pulley wheel badly in need of greasing." Strecker's Chorus Frogs breed opportunistically during rains from late February to May at temperatures of 35-70°F, and may call at night or during the day depending on temperature. Stegall (1977) found breeding choruses of this frog around a small pond on 23 and 30 April in Harper County. Rundquist et al. (1978) recorded a chorus at a pond in the same county on 13 May at 2300 hours with an air temperature of 68°F. Gray (1982) and Gray and Stegall (1986) reported choruses of this amphibian in Harper County on 21 February, 16 March, 3 April, 5 and 6 April, and 13 April and found that they ceased to call when temperatures dropped near 40°F. Larry Miller, Suzanne L. Collins, and I heard a chorus of thousands of these frogs in the same county on the evening of 7 April 1984. Miller (pers. comm., 1984) also heard choruses of this frog in Harper County on 30 May at an air temperature of 75°F following heavy rainfall. Miller (1987) found two examples of this frog in Harper County on 23 May; both were young frogs, taken beneath boards in sandy soil after heavy rains. Apparently, this frog prefers breeding sites with unpolluted water, an absence of fish predators, and the presence of some vascular water plants.Males chorus to attract females to aquatic situations for breeding. The eggs are laid in clumps of two to one hundred and are attached to aquatic plants and twigs. A female may lay up to 700 eggs in as many as 75 clumps. The eggs probably hatch within a week, and the tadpoles metamorphose during the summer. Deposited eggs and amplexing pairs of this frog were observed on 16 March in Harper County.
Breeding occurs in ephemeral depressions (wallows, ditches, cultivated fields, tire ruts, etc.) during March and April following sufficient precipitation Miller, 2004, found about a dozen calling by day from a small shallow pond in Harper County on 22 April 2004 at an air temperature of 56 deg. That night they heard hundreds calling from roadside ditches, shallow pasture pools, and agricultural fields in southeastern Barber and southwestern Harper counties.
The eggs are attached to vegetation and hatch within a few days. The tadpoles transform within two months.
Transformed Strecker's Chorus Frogs actively forage on humid nights. They eat small insects and other arthropods. Nothing is known of the food preferences of the Strecker's Chorus Frog in Kansas. It undoubtedly feeds on small insects.

Occurrence Activity:
Number of Unique Obervations (=days): 31; Range: 27 Feb to 18 Jul

Chorusing:

Audio recording by Keith Coleman.

Chorusing Phenology: The black outlined dots denote the Julian date (day of the year; 1 January = 1 to 31 December = 365) an observation was made. The thin red line depicts the range of dates between the beginning of the first, and end of the fourth quartile (excluding outliers; Tukey method). The thick light blue bar represents the second and third quartile (interquartile range; the middle 50% of all observations). Only one observation per Julian date is included in the graphs; so a date with multiple observations carries the same weight as a date with only one observation. The vertical bars correspond to the 12 months of the year; January through December.
Number of Unique Obervations: 157; Range: 27 Feb to 30 May; Interquartile range: 28 Mar to 22 Apr;

Remarks:
First reported from the state by Stegall (1977) from a locality 2 kilometers west and 9 kilometers south of Anthony, in Harper County on 23 April 1977. The earliest existing specimens (KU 174370-1) were those mentioned in Stegall (1977) and collected by Eddie Stegall, David Grow, Ed Byrne, and Peter Gray. Gray (1982) discovered several new localities for this taxon and contributed much-needed information on its chorusing and breeding activity. Miller (1987) reported discovering two young specimens under boards on sandy soil following heavy rain in Harper County.
Listed as a Kansas Endangered species in 1978. Collins (1980) reported on the precarious status of this amphibian in Kansas and suggested that it be designated a Kansas endangered species due to its presence in limited vulnerable habitat in the state. Gray (1982) and Gray and Stegall (1986) agreed and urged continued monitoring of this species to prevent its extirpation.
While running his Kansas Anuran Monitoring Program (KAMP) route in southeastern Pratt County, Nate Davis discovered a chorus of this species near the Isabel Wetland Wildlife Area on 25 March 2004. The following evening, Travis W. Taggart secured a voucher from several males calling in the water-filled depression of a wheat field on the wildlife area (Davis and Taggart, 2004). The water covered approximately two hectares and reached a maximum depth of 0.5 meters. Other frogs observed in the same pool were Spea bombifrons, Bufo woodhousii, and Pseudacris maculata. The latter two species were chorusing as well.
Following the initial discovery in Pratt County, an attempt was made to determine the limits of this isolated population by systematically driving nearby roads and listening for calls. All observations from that effort were made in sand prairie habitat in Pratt County and adjacent Barber and Kingman counties (Davis et al., 2004). Annual attempts to fill in the gaps and extend the range are ongoing (T. W. Taggart, pers. comm.).
The discovery of this northern population extended the range of this taxon further into the state another 30 miles and does much to bolster and secure its status. Where it occurs, its distinctive call can be expected for a few weeks in late winter to early spring. Surveys of additional sand prairies (particularly north of US 54 in Pratt County) may reveal the existence of more populations. Recent (2017) surveys by Jeff Seim, Zachary Cordes, and Daren Riedle (KDWPT) have added significant observations and partially bridged the gap. Surveys in 2018 and 2019 by Travis W. Taggart have since demonstrated that the two populations are connected.
.No recovery plan exists for this species. As defined by Kansas Administrative Regulations, critical habitats include those areas documented as currently supporting self-sustaining population(s) of any threatened or endangered species of wildlife as well as those areas determined by the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism to be essential for the conservation of any threatened or endangered species of wildlife.
Due to the intermittency of the individual breeding pools used by Strecker's Chorus Frogs, specific site designations for critical habitats are not made; however, whenever and wherever they occur, all wetlands and rainwater basins and pools within those portions of Barber and Harper counties located south of U.S. Highway 160, east of U.S. Highway 281, and west of a north-south line beginning at the NE corner of Section 26, T32S, R7W, Harper County and extending due south to the Kansas-Oklahoma border are considered critical habitats. The northern population inhabits wetlands, permanent and intermittent, in sand prairie habitat in Pratt, Barber, and Kingman counties.