The frog is small - only about 7 centimetres long, roughly the length of your thumb. It lives near fresh water: in streams that flow down hillsides after rain, in stone water tanks in the countryside, and in the damp shady corners of valleys.
Malta does not have many streams, because it is a hot, dry country. So the painted frog is very precious - there are not many places it can live. Conservation groups carefully look after the ponds and tanks where it breeds, to make sure the population stays healthy.
Painted frogs are very shy. If you walk too noisily near a pond, they vanish - 'plop!' into the water - before you've even seen them. The way to spot one is to sit quietly for a few minutes near the edge of a pond at dusk. Slowly, their little heads start to pop back up.
The frog's 'painted' look is good camouflage. The yellow patches help it disappear among yellow autumn leaves, and the brown spots match the rocks and mud. Frogs all over the world use tricks like this. Most are very, very good at being hard to see.