More than 100 local mountain yellow-legged frogs (MYLF) will be making the San Bernardino Mountains their home after San Diego Zoo Global and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reintroduced the large group into the mountainous habitat—increasing the wild population of an endangered species that, in some areas, is on the brink of being extirpated. This release is part of a 10-year captive breeding program that began when scientists from USGS rescued 80 tadpoles from a drying creek bed in the San Jacinto Mountains and brought them to the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Since then, thousands of frogs have been bred and released back into the region, with almost 1,200 released in 2016. The MYLF is just one of many amphibians in peril, and like others, it is essential for maintaining the natural balance of the ecosystem in which it lives.
There’s new hope for an endangered California frog that has vanished from half of its habitat.
The state Fish and Game Commission on Wednesday approved protections for five of six populations of the foothill yellow-legged frog.
The Center for Biological Diversity had sought protection for the stream-dwelling amphibians under California’s Endangered Species Act.
The commission voted to list the frogs as endangered in the Southern Sierra, central and southern coasts. Populations in the Northern Sierra and the Feather River will be listed as threatened.
The commission determined that frogs on the state’s northern coast “do not currently warrant protection,” the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement.
The tiny, pebbly-skinned frogs were once found from Los Angeles County to the Oregon border but their populations have shrunk thanks to threats from human encroachment, dams, climate change, pollution and activities ranging from logging and mining to marijuana growing.
Two related species of native frogs that inhabit higher elevations — the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog and the mountain yellow-legged frog — are already listed federally and by the state as endangered or threatened.
