Amphibians

Rocket Frog

Litoria nasuta · also called rocket frog, striped rocket frog

Least Concern → carnivoreinsectivore Rivers & wetlands Temperate grassland Temperate forest

A rocket frog is a frog built for one thing: getting away fast. Slim, sharp-nosed, and almost all hind leg, it can fire itself two metres in a single jump — about fifty times its own body length — and chain those leaps into a low, zig-zagging sprint across open ground.

Overview

The rocket frog, usually the striped rocket frog Litoria nasuta, is a small (4–5 cm) Australian frog of grassy wetland edges — swamps, ditches, flooded pasture, farm dams — across the north and east of the continent and into New Guinea. It hunts ants, beetles, flies, and spiders in the grass by day and dusk.

The jump

Its hind legs are far longer than its body, and a single leap of ~2 m puts it among the best jumpers of any frog relative to size — the equivalent of a person clearing several buses from a standing start. Flushed from cover, it does not make one jump but a fast erratic series of them, then freezes into its streaky camouflage.

A tree frog on the ground

Despite belonging to the Australian tree frog genus Litoria, the rocket frog is a ground-dweller with small toe pads that rarely climbs — a family member that traded climbing for sprinting. It breeds fast in temporary rain pools, its tadpoles racing to develop before the water dries.

Status

Least Concern — abundant, widespread, tolerant of farmland, and, unusually for an Australian frog, largely spared by the chytrid fungus, probably because it lives in warm lowlands where the fungus struggles.

Rocket Frog: common questions

How far can a rocket frog jump?

A striped rocket frog can leap around two metres in one bound, which is roughly fifty times its body length of about four to five centimetres. Scaled up, that is like a person jumping the length of three or four buses from a standing start. In tests of jump performance across many frog species, rocket frogs and their relatives come out near the top for distance relative to size. The frog can also chain leaps together with very little pause, so it does not just make one big jump but effectively sprints in a series of long, flat arcs.

Why is it called a rocket frog?

For the jumping and the shape. When disturbed, the frog takes off in a burst of long, fast, low leaps that look like it has been fired from somewhere, and its slim, sharp-nosed, streamlined body reinforces the impression of something built for speed. The name is used for several long-legged jumping frogs in the Australian genus Litoria, and separately for a group of small Central and South American frogs, which are not related but are also fast, leggy, and ground-living.

Is a rocket frog a tree frog?

It belongs to the tree frog family and the large Australian genus Litoria, which includes many true climbing tree frogs, but the rocket frog itself is a ground-dweller. It lives among grass and litter at the edges of wetlands, has only small toe pads, and rarely if ever climbs. It is a good example of how a family named for one lifestyle contains members that have moved into quite different ones, in this case trading climbing for sprinting and jumping across open ground.

Do rocket frogs make good pets?

They are kept by some Australian hobbyists under the appropriate licences, and they are hardy and interesting, but they are demanding in one specific way, in that they need a long, low enclosure with plenty of floor space, because a frog whose main behaviour is explosive jumping will injure its nose repeatedly launching into the walls of a small tank. They also need warmth, humidity, live insect food, and secure grassy cover. For most people they are better watched in the wild, where a torch at night by a grassy pond edge will often pick out several.

Sources & further reading

Written by HideShark Editorial Team · reviewed by HideShark Science Desk. Published September 11, 2026. Last updated September 11, 2026.

Quick facts

Scientific name: Litoria nasuta
Diet: Small insects and other invertebrates hunted in grass and low vegetation near water, mostly by day and at dusk, including ants, beetles, flies, moths, and spiders, snapped up with quick short rushes and a flick of the tongue
A record jumper: The striped rocket frog has hind legs far longer than its body and can cover roughly two metres in a single leap, about fifty times its own body length, which places it among the very best jumpers of any frog for its size, and it can string leaps together to shoot across open ground
Built like a dart: The frog is small, slim, and streamlined, with a sharply pointed snout, a narrow waist, long thighs and shanks, and a low, ground-hugging posture, all of which reduce drag and let it launch and land cleanly at speed, a body plan quite unlike a typical squat pond frog
A ground-dwelling tree frog: Despite belonging to the Australian tree frog group, the rocket frog lives on the ground among grass tussocks and leaf litter at the edges of swamps, ditches, and flooded grassland, rather than climbing, and its toe pads are small
Fast breeder in temporary water: Rocket frogs breed after rain in shallow, grassy, often temporary pools, the male giving a dry, repeated clicking or chuckling call from the bank, and the eggs and fast-developing tadpoles can complete their growth before a seasonal pool dries
Escape by unpredictability: A rocket frog flushed from cover bolts in a rapid, erratic series of long, low, zig-zagging jumps that make it very hard for a predator or a person to follow or catch, then freezes, relying on its streaky brown camouflage among the grass stems
Widespread across the north: The striped rocket frog is common across northern and eastern Australia and into southern New Guinea, and it is one of several Australian frogs called rocket frogs for their jumping, alongside other Litoria species and the unrelated Neotropical rocket frogs of Central and South America
Range: Northern and eastern Australia from the Kimberley across the Top End and Cape York and down the east coast into New South Wales, and southern New Guinea, in open habitats near water including the grassy edges of swamps, lagoons, farm dams, drainage ditches, and flooded pasture, in savanna, woodland, and cleared land, mainly in the lowlands.
Conservation status: Least Concern → ≈ The striped rocket frog is abundant and widespread across northern and eastern Australia and southern New Guinea, tolerates disturbed and agricultural land, and readily uses artificial water bodies, and it is assessed as Least Concern with a stable population. It is not considered threatened, and unlike many Australian frogs it has not suffered major declines from the amphibian chytrid fungus, probably because it lives in warm lowland habitats where the fungus does less well. Local losses occur where grassy wetland margins are drained, built over, or heavily grazed, but there is no broad concern for the species in the wild