Frogs of New Zealand

If you are looking to identify certain frogs of New Zealand and can’t figure it out from the page, you can check my Frog Identification and see how to contact me about helping you out.

All the frogs of New Zealand are from the family Leiopelmatidae, an ancient family of frogs. There are only four species of frogs in the family and they are all found in New Zealand.

Leiopelmatidae

The Archey’s Frog is found on the Northern Island of New Zealand near the Coromandel Peninsula, Whareorino Forest Frog Protection Area, and Pureora. They are a critically endangered species, please do not bother them in the wild.

The Maud Island Frog is found on Maud Island and a population has been transferred to Motuara Island. It is considered part not its own species and actually the Hamilton’s Frog right now but they change this often so I’m leaving it here.

The Hamilton’s Frog is only found on Stephens Island in the Cook Strait. There is thought to be less than 300 individuals left in the wild.

Hochestetter’s Frog lives in the upper half of North Island.

Toads

There are no toads in New Zealand.

Introduced Frogs of Zealand

A few species of frogs have been introduced to New Zealand and have maintained populations.

The Green and Golden Bell Frog is a large species of tree frog native to Australia. Sadly, they can now be found on the North Island where they eat native animals.

Another large tree frog from Australia. It can be found across New Zealand.

The smallest of the introduced tree frog, the Brown Tree Frog is Tasmania. They are found on the South Island and up to the middle of the North Island.