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STATUS OF LEOPARD FROGS (Rana pipiens COMPLEX; RANIDAE) <br />IN ARIZONA AND SOUTHEASTERN CALIFORNIA: AN UPDATE <br />Robert W. Clarkson and James C. Rorabaugh <br />Arizona Game and Fish Department <br />2222 West Greenway Road, Phoenix, AZ 85023 <br />U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Yuma Projects Office <br />P. O. Box D, Yuma, AZ 85365 <br />Abstract -- A sample of literature and museum localities of <br />leopard frogs (Rana pipiens complex), was surveyed in Arizona and <br />Imperial Valley, California, during 1983-1987. We found R. <br />chiricahuensis at only two of 36 localities which previously <br />supported the species in the 1960s and 1970s; two new localities <br />are reported. Of 13 of 28 literature localities surveyed for R. <br />pipiens, none were found to be inhabited, although one previously <br />unreported population was discovered. Rana blairi was found at two <br />of six literature localities surveyed, and a new population was <br />reported. Rana yavapaiensis could not be found in Imperial Valley <br />and the lower Colorado River, Arizona-California, but upland <br />Arizona populations are relatively intact. Introduced R. <br />berlandieri has replaced R. vavapaiensis along the Colorado and <br />Gila rivers, Arizona. These apparent losses represent additional <br />decimation of an increasingly endangered North American ranid <br />fauna. <br />61