U.S. #3817
37¢ Ornate Chorus Frog
Reptiles & Amphibians
Issue Date: October 7, 2003
City: San Diego, CA
Quantity: 700,000,000
Printed By: Avery Dennison
Printing Method: Photogravure
Perforations: Serpentine Die Cut 11
Color: Multicolored

This stamp was issued as part of a set of five stamps picturing reptiles and amphibians found across the United States, released at a time when many species in these groups faced growing pressure from habitat loss and environmental change. Amphibians in particular were noted as especially vulnerable, since their porous skin makes them highly sensitive to pollutants in their surrounding environment. The set aimed to draw attention to these often overlooked animals through colorful, detailed stamp art.

The ornate chorus frog is a small species, reaching only about an inch and a quarter in length, found primarily across the coastal plain of the southeastern United States. It favors sandy, wooded habitats such as pine stands and sandhills, spending much of the spring and summer buried underground or tucked beneath logs and leaf litter, which makes it a species rarely encountered outside of its breeding season. As temperatures drop in late fall and winter, the frog becomes noticeably more active, migrating toward seasonal ponds and wetlands to breed.

Most sightings and sounds of this frog occur on rainy winter nights, when its loud, bird-like peeping call rings out from the water's edge as it searches for a mate. The ornate chorus frog depends on temporary, fish-free wetlands for breeding, since these seasonal pools allow its tadpoles to develop without the threat of fish predation. This reliance on fragile, short-lived water sources makes the species especially sensitive to changes in its surrounding landscape, offering a fitting example of the environmental pressures the stamp set as a whole sought to highlight.

U.S. #3817
37¢ Ornate Chorus Frog
Reptiles & Amphibians
Issue Date: October 7, 2003
City: San Diego, CA
Quantity: 700,000,000
Printed By: Avery Dennison
Printing Method: Photogravure
Perforations: Serpentine Die Cut 11
Color: Multicolored

This stamp was issued as part of a set of five stamps picturing reptiles and amphibians found across the United States, released at a time when many species in these groups faced growing pressure from habitat loss and environmental change. Amphibians in particular were noted as especially vulnerable, since their porous skin makes them highly sensitive to pollutants in their surrounding environment. The set aimed to draw attention to these often overlooked animals through colorful, detailed stamp art.

The ornate chorus frog is a small species, reaching only about an inch and a quarter in length, found primarily across the coastal plain of the southeastern United States. It favors sandy, wooded habitats such as pine stands and sandhills, spending much of the spring and summer buried underground or tucked beneath logs and leaf litter, which makes it a species rarely encountered outside of its breeding season. As temperatures drop in late fall and winter, the frog becomes noticeably more active, migrating toward seasonal ponds and wetlands to breed.

Most sightings and sounds of this frog occur on rainy winter nights, when its loud, bird-like peeping call rings out from the water's edge as it searches for a mate. The ornate chorus frog depends on temporary, fish-free wetlands for breeding, since these seasonal pools allow its tadpoles to develop without the threat of fish predation. This reliance on fragile, short-lived water sources makes the species especially sensitive to changes in its surrounding landscape, offering a fitting example of the environmental pressures the stamp set as a whole sought to highlight.