Conservancies Work to Bolster Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog Population in San Bernadino Mountains

More than 100 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs were recently reintroduced to their natural habitat in the San Bernadino Mountains.

San Diego Zoo Global and other conservancy agencies began a captive breeding program in 2007 and have since bred thousands of frogs back into the wild. The latest group is just a portion of more than 1,000 frogs that have been released in 2016.

According to the Zoo, 41 percent of amphibian species are at risk of extinction, making them the earth’s most threatened taxonomic group.

As for the mountain yellow-legged frog, its population has been in steady decline over the last four decades due to drought, pollution and the deadly chytridiomycosis disease caused by the chytrid fungus.

The mountain yellow-legged frog is currently listed as "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act and on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

A particular population of the frog in City Creek, near San Bernadino, was once considered completely extinct, but the success of the breeding program has allowed researchers to make plans to reintroduce tadpoles to the area in 2017.

If researchers can successfully establish a frog population in the area, it would be the first time a group of the species is returned to an area where their population was once extirpated.

The captive breeding program, now in its tenth year, was started by the Zoo and the USGS with the help of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, San Bernadino National Forest, the Oakland Zoo and the Los Angeles Zoo.

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