Distribution:
Found statewide except for the extreme southwestern corner.
(,   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:  
• 4,874
  Records 
• 1,935
  Museum Vouchers 
• 2,939
  Other Observations 

Some county occurrences indicated below may be too imprecise to map above.
County Breakdown: County Name (# occurrences):
Allen (42); Anderson (14); Atchison (1); Barber (22); Barton (120); Bourbon (81); Brown (5); Butler (68); Chase (56); Chautauqua (34); Cherokee (319); Cheyenne (11); Clark (2); Clay (11); Cloud (21); Coffey (232); Comanche (19); Cowley (16); Crawford (233); Dickinson (8); Doniphan (6); Douglas (708); Edwards (8); Elk (27); Ellis (114); Ellsworth (35); Finney (51); Ford (6); Franklin (74); Geary (6); Gove (4); Graham (88); Gray (9); Greenwood (93); Harper (52); Harvey (62); Hodgeman (11); Jackson (107); Jefferson (13); Jewell (5); Johnson (74); Kearney (4); Kingman (21); Kiowa (1); Labette (87); Lane (7); Leavenworth (62); Lincoln (2); Linn (73); Logan (13); Lyon (31); Marion (98); Marshall (25); McPherson (125); Meade (2); Miami (58); Mitchell (2); Montgomery (106); Morris (3); Nemaha (20); Neosho (48); Ness (49); Norton (4); Osage (125); Osborne (21); Ottawa (6); Pawnee (19); Phillips (10); Pottawatomie (149); Pratt (58); Rawlins (1); Reno (23); Republic (2); Rice (10); Riley (91); Rooks (4); Rush (28); Russell (14); Saline (54); Scott (1); Sedgwick (102); Shawnee (26); Sheridan (19); Sherman (2); Smith (4); Stafford (48); Sumner (71); Thomas (2); Trego (17); Unknown (87); Wabaunsee (73); Wallace (3); Washington (17); Wichita (1); Wilson (58); Woodson (12); Wyandotte (7);

Fossil History:
Pleistocene fossils are known from McPherson and Meade counties.
Fossils from the Sandahl Local Fauna of McPherson County (Pleistocene: Illinoian) (Holman 1971; Preston 1979; Holman 1995) are assignable to this taxon.
Fossils from the Cragin Quarry Local Fauna of Meade County (Pleistocene: Sangamonian) (Hay 1917; Etheridge 1958; Etheridge 1960, Tihen 1960; Tihen 1962; Brattstrom 1967; Preston 1979; Holman 1995) are assignable to this taxon.

Natural History:
These frogs are found in a wide variety of habitats: damp meadows and pastures, along streams and ditches, around the edges of temporary or permanent ponds and lakes, on floodplains, and in moist woods. They are active throughout most of the year, weather permitting. Like many frogs, they retire into underground burrows of other animals during weather extremes or when living in marginal habitat.
Like other chorus frogs, they are seldom found outside of the breeding season as they seek refuge under cover and only emerge after rains or humid nights to forage for small invertebrates. According to Fitch (1956), these species in northeastern Kansas are active earlier in the spring than any other frog or toad. In Osage County, Clarke (1958) found these frogs active at a temperature range of 4.4-32.2°C (40-90°F). Taggart (1992) found a single adult active beneath a pile of tumbleweeds in Trego County on 23 December at an air temperature of 3.3°C (38°F).
Boreal Chorus Frogs breed chiefly during March and April but also take advantage of summer rains to chorus and mate (Heinrich and Kaufman, 1985; Irwin and Collins, 1987; Simon and Dorlac, 1990). After the first rains of February or early March, male frogs congregate in roadside ditches, small ponds, lakes, marshes, or swamps, or along slow-moving streams, and begin chorusing to attract females. Choruses may occur at temperatures as low as 1.7°C (35°F). A male mounts a female, clasping her behind her front limbs, and the eggs are deposited and fertilized in water. Each female may lay from 100 to 1,500 eggs in small clutches varying in number from five to 300. The egg clutches are attached to plant stems in the water and hatch in about two weeks. The free-swimming tadpoles metamorphose within two months.
Heinrich and Kaufman (1985) reported egg clutches of 223 and 294, respectively, for two females on the Konza Prairie near Manhattan; they were deposited in clumps ranging from 5 to 157 eggs. A female collected in Pratt County laid 1,169 eggs in thirteen clumps; the largest clump contained 198 eggs (Scott Hillard, pers. comm. 1986; Collins, 1993).
Fitch (1958), in his intensive study of vertebrates in northeastern Kansas, observed wide fluctuations in abundance of these frogs, apparently correlated with breeding success the previous season. He considered rain a necessity before males would travel to breeding sites in the spring. At night, on 6 June, he observed swarms of newly metamorphosed young leaving a breeding pond after heavy rain, some having migrated 200 yards up a woodland slope by the following morning.
Cragin (1881) reported these species eating grubs, beetles, and spiders. Hartman (1906) recorded predation on spiders as well as finding algae and ants in the stomachs of four young specimens and spiders from two adult individuals. Smith (1934) stated that these frogs probably feed on aquatic and semiaquatic insects.
Predators include large birds, small mammals, snakes,and other frogs. Gloyd (1928) found a Western Chorus Frog being swallowed by a Leopard Frog in Franklin County.

Occurrence Activity:
Number of Unique Obervations (=days): 207; Range: 04 Feb to 15 Nov

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: 2424; Range: 12 Feb to 14 Oct; Interquartile range: 03 Apr to 10 Jun;

Remarks:
The Boreal Chorus Frog was first reported in Kansas by Coues and Yarrow, (1878) based on specimens in the 'Natural Museum' (presumably the United States National Museum) at that time. Cope (1889) lists USNM 3307 from the Blue River, Kansas, but the USNM catalog shows no data for that number. The earliest existing specimen (USNM 45921) is from Onaga, Pottawatomie County, and was collected (collector unknown) sometime in 1891.
An extremely observably abundant amphibian during following late winter and spring rains. At other times of the year, this species is seldom encountered, and can most often be found crossing roads on rainy nights while foraging.
Platz (1989) demonstrated the presence of both the Boreal Chorus Frog (Pseudacris maculata) and the Western Chorus Frog (Pseudacris triseriata) in Kansas. He determined that both species were present in Cloud and Douglas counties but the distribution elsewhere in the state was uncertain because the two species were so similar in appearance.
Subsequently Moriarty and Cannatella (2004), Moriarty (2007), and Moriarty et al. (2008) found that Pseudacris clarkii and Pseudacris maculata were not reciprocally monophyletic.
The Cajun Chorus Frog Pseudacris fouquettei approaches the southern border of Kansas (Moriarty and Cannatella (2004), Moriarty (2007), and Moriarty et al. (2008)) and may be hybridizing with the the Boreal Chorus Frog between Chautauqua and Crawford counties. Pseudacris fouquettei is the sister species of P. nigrita.