Natural History Wanderings

The Amphibian Survival Alliance blog reported on the work of conservationists from the San Francisco Zoo, Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory and San Francisco State University to reintroduce the Sierra Nevada Yellow-legged Frog. The blog post pointed out

Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs were once the most common animal along the shores of the hundreds of lakes in the Sierra Nevada range.  The Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog lives in California’s mountain lakes and wet meadows between just below 4000 feet and over 12,000 feet in elevation.  In order to persist, the species requires permanent water, that doesn’t freeze completely in the winter.  They also need their mountain homes to be free of introduced predators, like trout.  Unfortunately, for the frog, trout were stocked in a large portion of the lakes in the high Sierra and as a result, many frog populations were eliminated.  If that wasn’t bad enough, the species is also highly susceptible to the amphibian chytrid fungus.  This disease has wreaked havoc with amphibian populations around the world, driving many to extinction.   The double blow was too much for the frogs to survive and the species has dwindled to less than 5 percent of its former distribution.  It is believed that by the late 1970s, mountain yellow legged frogs were gone from much of the Tahoe Basin.  Last week’s release means that a major player in the Sierra ecosystem has returned, after a decades long absence.

Read story at Against All Odds: The Reintroduction of the Sierra Nevada Yellow- Legged Frog » Amphibians.org.