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| Subspecies: | Unknown |
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| Est. World Population: | |
| CITES Status: | NOT LISTED |
| IUCN Status: | Least Concern |
| U.S. ESA Status: | NOT LISTED |
| Body Length: | |
| Tail Length: | |
| Shoulder Height: | |
| Weight: | |
| Top Speed: | |
| Jumping Ability: | (Horizontal) |
| Life Span: | in the Wild |
| Life Span: | in Captivity |
| Sexual Maturity: | (Females) |
| Sexual Maturity: | (Males) |
| Litter Size: | |
| Gestation Period: | |
Habitat:
This species inhabits mesic savanna and grassland. It breeds in perennial and ephemeral standing pools and marshes, and in dense grass at the edges of shallow semi-permanent pans with emergent vegetation such as Persicaria pulchra, Ludwigia adscendens and Cyperus papyrus (Backwell and Passmore 1991). During the breeding season (November to February), adult frogs can be found sitting in a head-down position in full sun on the leaf blades of the emergent vegetation throughout the day, with males moving down towards the water to resume calling from sunset until about 4:00 am. It lives in the leaf axils during the dry season.
Range:
This species is endemic to southern Africa and ranges from the Mhlatuze Valley in northern KwaZulu-Natal province through Eswatini and eastern Mpumalanga and extreme southern Limpopo province of South Africa, west to the Lebombo Mountains, and along the coast as far north as Maputo in Mozambique (Poynton and Broadley 1987; Lambiris 1989; Jacobsen 1990; Minter et al. 2004; Pickersgill 1984, 2005; Vlok et al. 2013). A specimen from Zavora in coastal southern Mozambique (Poynton and Broadley 1987) is much further north than the remainder of the distribution and may represent a misidentification and is therefore not plotted. In his revision of the genus, Pickersgill (2005) does not map Afrixalus aureus as occurring at Zavora, but does mention a specimen of A. delicatus with similar specimen data from Zavora, and it is possible that this is the same specimen that was referred to A. aureus by Poynton and Broadley (1987). Subpopulations in northern South Africa that were previously assigned to this species are now assigned to A. crotalus (Keates et al. 2024). Based on preliminary molecular barcoding the species appears to occur further inland, while A. delicatus is more coastal (E. Netherlands pers. comm. 2024). It has an estimated extent of occurrence (EOO) of 80,643 km2 and occurs from sea level up to elevations of 300 m asl. It has a distribution of 65,201 km2.
Conservation:
Conservation Actions In-Place
The species occurs in the Kruger National Park and in several protected areas across more than 20% of the species' range.
The species occurs in the Kruger National Park and in several protected areas across more than 20% of the species' range.