SAN GABRIEL MOUNTAINS, CA — Last week, biologists from the USGS Western Ecological Research Center (WERC) and partnering agencies released hundreds of endangered, mountain yellow-legged frog tadpoles back to their historic habitat in southern California.
Disease, habitat loss, and invasive predators have driven mountain yellow-legged frogs (Rana muscosa) to the brink across their range from the southern Sierra Nevada to southern California. In an effort to boost their numbers, the Los Angeles Zoo established a captive-breeding program to rear tadpoles in a safe environment before releasing them into the wild. A new generation of captive-reared tadpoles made their way to their final destination this week, when representatives from the Zoo, WERC, and cooperators tucked them neatly into temperature-controlled backpacks and trekked into the San Gabriel Mountains. There, the tadpoles should thrive in streams and ponds protected from non-native predators like trout and crayfish.
Read the L.A. Times’ cover story on this event.
For more information on WERC’s mountain yellow-legged frog research, check out the project webpage.
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