Description: These frogs are plentiful in ponds and rivers within the south-eastern portion of Sub-Saharan Africa. They are aquatic and are often greenish-grey in color. African clawed frogs have been frequently sold as pets, and sometimes incorrectly misidentified as African dwarf frogs. Albino clawed frogs are common and sold as animals for laboratories.

Although lacking a vocal sac, the males make a mating call of alternating long and short trills, by contracting the intrinsic laryngeal muscles. Females also answer vocally, signaling either acceptance (a rapping sound) or rejection (slow ticking) of the male. This frog has smooth slippery skin which is multicolored on its back with blotches of olive gray or brown. The underside is creamy white with a yellow tinge.

Male and female frogs can be easily distinguished through the following differences. Male frogs are small and slim, while females are larger and more rotund. Males have black patches on their hands and arms which aid in grabbing onto females during amplexus. Females have a more pronounced cloaca and have hip-like bulges above their rear legs where their eggs are internally located.

Both males and females have a cloaca, which is a chamber through which digestive and urinary wastes pass and through which the reproductive systems also empty. The cloaca empties by way of the vent which in reptiles and amphibians is a single opening for all three systems.

Habitat: In the wild, X. laevis are native to wetlands, ponds, and lakes

Range: There are isolated, introduced populations in North America in Southern California and Arizona.

Found in these States: AZ | CA

Diet: Clawed frogs are carnivores and will eat both living and dead prey including fish, tadpoles, crustaceans, annelids, arthropods, and more. Clawed frogs will try to consume anything that is able to fit into their mouths. Being aquatic, clawed frogs use their sense of smell and their lateral line to detect prey rather than eyesight like other frogs. However, clawed frogs can still see using their eyes and will stalk prey or watch predators by sticking their heads out of the water. Clawed frogs will dig through substrate to unearth worms and other food. Their tongue is unable to extend like other frogs, so clawed frogs use their hands to grab food and shovel it into their mouths.

These frogs are particularly cannibalistic; the stomach contents of feral clawed frogs in California have revealed large amounts of the frog's larvae. Clawed frog larvae are filter feeders and collect nutrients from plankton, allowing adult frogs that consume the tadpoles to have access to these nutrients. This allows clawed frogs to survive in areas that have little to no other food sources.

Reproduction: They reproduce by fertilizing eggs outside of the female's body. Of the seven amplexus modes (positions in which frogs mate), these frogs are found breeding in inguinal amplexus, where the male clasps the female in front of the female's back legs and squeezes until eggs come out. The male then sprays sperm over the eggs to fertilize them. African clawed frogs are highly adaptable and will lay their eggs whenever conditions allow it.

Status: Listed as Least Concern in view of its very wide distribution, its tolerance of a broad range of habitats, its presumed large population, and because it is unlikely to be declining to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.

Subspecies: None

Taxonomy: