Hoplobatrachus occipitalis (Günther, 1858)

Common Names

African Tigrine Frog (Cochran, 1961, Living Amph. World: 153).

Giant Swamp Frog (Broadley, 1971, Puku, 6: 113).

Ethiopia Peters Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 99).

Crowned Bullfrog (Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 295).

Groove-crowned Bullfrog (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 126; Barnett, Emms, and Santoni, 2001, Herpetol. Bull., London, 77: 8).

Eastern Groove-crowned Bullfrog (Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 268; Lötters, Wagner, Bwong, Schick, Malonza, Muchai, Wasonga, and Veith, 2007, Fieldguide Amph. Rept. Kakamega Forest: 26).

African Groove-crowned Frog (Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 158).

African Tiger Frog (Kanga, Kouamé, Zogbass, Gongomin, Agoh, Kouamé, Konan, Adepo-Gourène, Gourène, and Rödel, 2021, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 15: 84).

Distribution

Gambia and extreme southeastern Western Sahara to southern Sudan and western Ethiopia (including isolated populations in southwestern Libya; see comment) and adjacent Algeria, Air mountains of Niger, northern Mali), south through subsaharan Africa to northern Zambia, western Rwanda, northern to west-central and Cabinda Province of Angola, and western Rep. Congo and western Dem. Rep. Congo; reported from north-central and northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo (see comment). Reports from Morocco, Equatorial Guinea, and Eritrea require confirmation (see comment). 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Congo, Republic of the, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Western Sahara, Zambia

Likely/Controversially Present: Equatorial Guinea

Comment

Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 315 (following Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 61), placed this in the Hoplobatrachus occipitalis group. Loveridge, 1957, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 117: 344, reported the species as occurring in Morocco and Eritrea, but did not cite vouchers; these occurrences require confirmation. Composed of two sibling species, according to Bogart and Tandy, 1976, Science, 193: 334–335, one of which, in Liberia, is tetraploid. See Salvador, 1996, Smithson. Herpetol. Inform. Serv., 109, for account. See Géniez, Mateo, and Bons, 2001 "2000", Herpetozoa, Wien, 13: 152, for Western Sahara record. Rödel, 2000, Herpetofauna W. Afr., 1: 145–152, Channing, 2001, Amph. Cent. S. Afr.: 296–297, Channing and Howell, 2006, Amph. E. Afr.: 268–270, Pickersgill, 2007, Frog Search: 111–112, and Lötters, Wagner, Bwong, Schick, Malonza, Muchai, Wasonga, and Veith, 2007, Fieldguide Amph. Rept. Kakamega Forest: 26–27, provided accounts. Padial and De la Riva, 2004, Rev. Esp. Herpetol., 18: 93, provided records from Mauritania. Schiøtz, 1963, Vidensk. Medd. Dansk Naturhist. Foren., 125: 25–26, provided records for Nigeria. Emms, Jambang, Bah, Mankali, Rödel, and Barnett, 2005, Herpetol. Bull., London, 94: 6–16, provided records for Gambia. Géniez, Mateo, Geniez, and Pether, 2004, Amph. Rept. W. Sahara: 42, provided a brief account for Western Sahara. Leaché, Rödel, Linkem, Diaz, Hillers, and Fujita, 2006, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 41: 22–45, reported the species from Kyabobo National Park, Ghana, on the border with Togo. Jackson and Blackburn, 2007, Salamandra, 43: 149–164, provided a record for Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, Rep. Congo. Jacobsen, 2009, Afr. Herp News, 47: 2–20, reported this species from east-north-central Central African Republic. See account, photograph, and map for Ethiopia by Largen and Spawls, 2010, Amph. Rept. Ethiopia Eritrea: 157–158. Channing, Rödel, and Channing, 2012, Tadpoles of Africa: 166–167, reported on comparative tadpole morphology. Reques, Pleguezuelos, Busack, and de Pous, 2013, Basic & Appl. Herpetol., 27: 23–50, discussed the range and conservation status in Western Sahara. Padial, Crochet, Géniez, and Brito, 2013, Basic & Appl. Herpetol., 27: 11–22, discussed systematics, distribution, and conservation status in Mauritania. Ibrahim, 2013, Basic & Appl. Herpetol., 27: 101–106, discussed ranges and population status in Libya, and suggested that the species may have been introduced into Libya and now extirpated. Mateo, Géniez, and Pether, 2013, Basic & Appl. Herpetol., 27: 51–83, provided a range map, comments on the range and population status in Algeria. Monasterio, Álvarez, Trape, and Rödel, 2016, Herpetol. Notes, 9: 1–6, provided a record from Dindefelo Natural Community Reserve, southeastern Senegal. Jongsma, Tobi, Dixon-MacCallum, Bamba-Kaya, Yoga, Mbega, Mve Beh, Emrich, and Blackburn, 2017, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 11 (1: e144): 10, provided a record for southeastern Gabon and briefly discussed habitat and range. Marques, Ceríaco, Blackburn, and Bauer, 2018, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 65 (Suppl. II): 157, provided a map for Angola and brief discussion of the literature. Nagy, Chifundera, Collet, and Gvoždík, 2013, Herpetol. Notes, 6:  413–419, provided a record from Bas-Congo, southwestern Dem. Rep. Congo. Onadeko, 2016, Ethiopian J. Environm. Stud. Manag., 9: 22–34, reported on habitat preference in southwestern Nigeria. Sow, Gonçalves, Sousa, Martínez-Freiría, Santarém, Velo-Antón, Dieng, Campos, Diagne, Boratyński, and Brito, 2017, Basic & Appl. Herpetol., 31: 101–116, reported the species from extreme southeastern Mauritania. Dewynter, Chirio, Melki, Cordier, and Frétey, 2017, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 11: 13, provided a brief account and photographs of this species from the Mount Koumouna-Bouali area of Gabon. Dewynter and Frétey, 2019, Cah. Fondation Biotope, 27: 20, summarized the literature for Gabon and provided photographs (p. 54). Rödel and Glos, 2019, Zoosyst. Evol., 95: 21, reported this species from the Foya Proposed Protected Area in western Liberia. See detailed account for North Africa by Escoriza and Ben Hassine, 2019, Amph. N. Afr.: 184–189. Spawls, Wasonga, and Drewes, 2019, Amph. Kenya: 49, provided a photograph, range map, and brief characterization. Mali, Laudisoit, Yendema, Badjedjea, Mukobya, Ewango, Katuala, Akaibe, Bongo, Anio, Ngbolua, and Tungaluna, 2019, Asian J. Res. Zool., 2(4): 1–11, reported specimens so identified from the Lendu Plateau of northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo; this identification requires confirmation. Mali, Banda, Chifundera, Badjedjea, Sebe, Lokasola, Ewango, Tungaluna, and Akaibe, 2019, Am. J. Zool., 2: 38–43, reported the species from the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, northeastern Dem. Rep. Congo, again, the identification requires confirmation. Ernst, Lautenschläger, Branquima, and Hölting, 2020, Zoosyst. Evol., 96: 253, noted the presence in Uigé Province, northwestern Angola. Ayoro, Segniagbeto, Hema, Penner, Oueda, Dubois, Rödel, Kabré, and Ohler, 2020, Zoosystema, 42: 547–582, discussed records, identification, and habitat in Burkina Faso. Sampaio, Velo-Antón, Martínez-Freiría, Sánchez-Vialas, Pleguezuelos, Géniez, Crochet, and Brito, 2021, Conserv. Genetics, 22: 233–248, discussed possible cryptic species diversity in Mauritania. Kanga, Kouamé, Zogbass, Gongomin, Agoh, Kouamé, Konan, Adepo-Gourène, Gourène, and Rödel, 2021, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 15: 71–107, commented on conservation status, identification, range, and habitat on the Ivory Coast side of Mont Nimba. Kako-Wanzalire, Mongo, Ilonga, Mapoli, Mbumba, Neema, Tungaluna, Itoka, and Bogaert, 2021, Tropicultura, 39 (1: 1709): 1–19, briefly discussed habitat preference in north-central Dem. Rep. Congo. Discussion of range in Libya provided by Blackburn, Nielsen, and Jdeidi, 2022, Herpetol. Rev., 53: 211–219. Sánchez-Vialas, Calvo-Revuelta, Castroviejo-Fisher, and De la Riva, 2020, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 66: 144, suggested that no specimens for Equatorial Guinea have been documented and presence in that political unit requires conformation. Pagano, Daf, Ballouche, Taïbi, and Sinsch, 2022, Salamandra, 58: 317–322, reported on the advertisement call from  Diawling National Park, southwestern Mauritania. Dehling and Sinsch, 2023, Diversity, 15 (512): 1–81, discussed the range, identification, natural history, advertisement call, and conservation status in Rwanda. Gansa, Agadjihouèdé, and Hounkanrin, 2023, Afr. Zool., 58: 39–56, reported the species from the lower Ouémé Valley, southern Benin, and briefly descried habitat preference. Hillers, Bangoura, Loua, and Rödel, 2024, in Wright, H.E. et al. (eds.), Rapid Biol. Assess. Boké Pref., NW Guinea: 131–136, commented on habitat of specimens from the Boké Region, northwestern Guinea. Olofindji, Ales, and Sogbohossou, 2024, Herpetol. Notes, 17: 483–489, reported the species from the Sitatunga Valley of southern Benin. Segniagbeto, Ohler, Rödel, Luiselli, and Dubois, 2024, Zoosystema, 46: 640–642, provided an account for Togo, discussing habitat, distribution, conservation status, and identification. Spawls, Mazuch, and Mohammad, 2023, Handb. Amph. Rept. NE Afr.: 116–117, provided an account addressing identification, natural history, conservation status, and range, including a polygon map for northeastern Africa. Musubaho, Iyongo, Mukinzi, Mukiranya, Mutahinga, Badjedjea, Lango, and Bogaert, 2024, Animals, 16(457): 1–17, reported the species from Yoko Forest Reserve, Tshopo Province, north-central Dem. Rep. Congo. Lobón-Rovira, Baptista, Clark, Jongsma, Conradie, Veríssimol, and Vaz Pinto, 2025, Afr. J. Herpetol., 74: 23, reported the species from several localities in Cabinda Province, Angola. Adnew, Habtamu, Atickem, Goutte, Kassie Teme, and Boissinot, 2026, Diversity, 18(199): 1–19, discussed habitat and natural history in Chebera Churchura National Park, southwestern Ethiopia.  

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.

• For access to general information see Wikipedia
• For additional sources of general information from other websites search Google
• For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
• For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
• To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
• For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
• For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
• For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist