Rocky Mountain Tailed Frog (Ascaphus montanus)

Small and aquatic, these frogs live in cold mountain streams and creeks with cobblestone bottoms.

Note the "tail", which is actually a protuded cloaca used for copulation. Because they inhabit fast-flowing creeks, tailed frogs are the only frogs in the world that practice internal fertilization. Only the males possess these "tails".

Rocky Mountain Tailed Frogs are not known to vocalize, and they lack tympanic membranes.

Tadpoles may live 4 years before metamorphosis. They have sucker mouths used to attach to rocks on the stream bottom.

Note the yellow spot near the tip of the tail.