Individuals can be distinguished from other Rana species by their shorter back legs, narrow snout, and upturned eyes.

Its color ranges from a dark, olive green to light brown with irregularly shaped black spots on its back and legs (rendering its name).

A light-colored strip runs along the upper lip, and the ventral sides of the frog are usually colored either pink or yellow, but only in the adult form.

Their habitats are found generally near permanent bodies of water, which can include lakes, ponds, slow-moving streams, and marshes.

These frogs are a constant victim to predation, so they require an abundant source of low-growing or emergent vegetation as shelter.

In areas such as the Silver Valley in Northern Idaho, some spotted frog habitats have been destroyed by toxicants such as smelter byproducts.

When ecosystems are contaminated with mixtures of heavy metals such as lead, zinc, cadmium, mercury, silver, and copper, this can disrupt the ability of Columbia spotted frogs to reproduce.

[3] Frogs raised in outdoor mini-ecosystems with Silver Valley soil (which contains mixtures of different metals) also showed altered predator-avoidance behaviors, decreased learning and adaptation abilities, and slower fright responses towards predator cues compared to frogs raised in mini-ecosystems with single metals.

[3] Another substance that can negatively affect Columbia spotted frogs is the piscicide rotenone, which is used to remove non-native fish species.

[4] A recent study revealed that rotenone had deadly effects on Columbia spotted frog tadpoles that had not developed into lung-breathing stages.

The male frog arrives at the breeding grounds before the female becomes reproductively active and establishes an oviposition site.