Endangered frogs get jumpstart for survival

Photo courtesy of riley gratzer

JUMPIN JOB. Hundreds of young Oregon spotted frogs were counted, measured and tagged at Northwest Trek Sept. 12 as part of a collaborative effort to help restore the endangered species. The frogs were hatched and raised at the Trek in order to give the animals a head-start on survival, before they are released back into the wild at Fort Lewis Sept. 22.

Hundreds of frogs will be released into a lake at Fort Lewis Sept. 22 in an effort to boost the rapidly declining Oregon spotted frog population.

The native amphibian has come near extinction over the past several decades. A species that was historically prevalent in the Puget lowlands from the Canadian border to the Columbia River now only exists in 10 locations in two counties in Washington, due to increasing development, climate change, disease and non-native predators.

A collaborative effort between Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, Fort Lewis, as well as several other zoos and organizations, launched a pilot program this March in an attempt to restore the fragile species so closely tied to a healthy ecosystem.

This project’s start up coincides with efforts by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which is highlighting 2008 as the Year of the Frog to mark a major conservation effort to address the global amphibian extinction crisis.

“Frogs are the first to be affected…in the most serious of ways,” said Dave Ellis, deputy director at Northwest Trek. “They’re like a canary in a coal mine. They’re telling us that something is bad when entire regions are being depleted of the species…something serious is going on.”

Depletion of wetlands, increase of development and predators in the frog’s natural environment, as well as environmental issues such as global warming and the correlated disease chytrid are what have been decreasing the numbers seen locally for decades.

The species was put on the state’s endangered species list in 1997, and is a candidate for the national list. WDFW has been tracking the animal for years before becoming endangered.

State endangered species recovery biologist Dina Roberts said the restoration project has been in the works for quite a while, but action just began this year. More than 500 frog eggs were collected from their natural habitat and brought to Northwest Trek’s conservation building, where they hatched and have been safely growing up over the past six months.

On Sept. 12, a team of biologists and Trek zoo keepers hand measured and tagged each of the frogs to prepare them for their release two weeks later.

The frogs were injected with a color-coded dye in their right leg, and will be attached with radio transmitting devices to track their lives from release through adulthood.

“They’ll have the ability to travel wherever they want, and we’ll be able to figure out where they’re going, and get a better idea of their (natural lifestyles),” said Jim Lynch, Fort Lewis fish and wildlife biologist.

Fort Lewis is already home to countless endangered species, but there are currently no Oregon spotted frogs on the base’s 86,000 acres of undeveloped land.

Frogs from a similar conservation effort at the Oregon Zoo will also be released at Fort Lewis later this month. They will be tagged with a contrasting color to Washington’s frogs. Raising the frogs during the early portion of their lives in captivity should allow the animals a better shot of surviving, helping to boost the depleting population. Project partners plan to continue this effort over the next five years at least.

“We’re trying to keep this one (species) around,” Ellis said. “You cannot remove one strand of a web without weakening the complex.”

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