Maintaining frog monitoring and population on the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area

This report summarizes and analyzes the data collected on the Chiricahua Leopard Frog (CLF) populations on the Las Ciénegas National Conservation Area (LCNCA) in southeast Arizona, U.S.A., during the reporting period covered under this funding agreement from September 2020 through October 2024 and place this analysis in historical context of the previous monitoring efforts. The major findings of this report are:

1. We conducted a total of 465 surveys across 46 sites on the LCNCA and the associated Elgin Buffer Zone during September 2020 through October 2024. We conducted 323 surveys across the 19 core CLF monitoring sites on the LCNCA and 112 surveys across 13 core buffer zone sites.

2. We detected CLF at each of our 19 core LCNCA monitoring sites during at least one year in which we conducted surveys across the year’s entire field season (i.e., 2021-2024). We detected CLF reproduction in each of these four years at four sites and suspected reproduction to have occurred during all four years at a fifth site. We did not detect CLF reproduction at seven of these 19 core monitoring sites during the report period. We assisted with six CLF translocations to sites on the LCNA during the report period.

3. Site occupancy rates across the LCNCA during the report period remain consistent with those reported during previous years and continue to indicate the presence of a stable CLF metapopulation within the LCNCA.

4. Monitoring efforts in the Elgin Buffer Zone continue to be successful at preventing reinvasion by invasive American bullfrogs to the LCNCA. We detected and removed bullfrogs from three sites in the Elgin Buffer Zone and no bullfrogs were detected during 2024. The LCNCA continues to remain bullfrog free since 2014.