Following a species rehabilitation effort by the Birch Aquarium, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, UCLA, and others, more than 350 endangered Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs have been released into the wild, it was announced Tuesday.
Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego marked the occasion as its first ever species reintroduction. The frogs were released into the San Bernardino Mountains in a wildlife preserve managed by The Wildlands Conservancy.
“It was an incredibly exciting and emotional day for our team, as releasing these frogs into the wild marks a historic first for Birch Aquarium,” said Sean Bruce, assistant curator of fishes and invertebrates. “We have been raising these frogs for more than a year, and to finally reach this milestone is truly remarkable.”
The aquarium raised 220 of the frogs, which are native to mountain ranges in Southern and Central California. The remainder were raised at SDZWA and UCLA.
The frogs are small (between 1.6 and 3.5 inches long) with females larger than males. Their coloring ranges from yellowish to brown or olive with black or brown markings. The undersides of its hind legs can range from pale yellow to orange, giving them their common name. When handled, they can emit a defensive odor that smells strongly of garlic.
“This release was made possible by the extraordinary dedication of our husbandry team and the invaluable collaboration of our partner organizations in this recovery project,” Bruce said. “Our shared passion and expertise made this success possible, and we hope these frogs thrive here for many years to come.”
The organizations tasked with raising the frogs transported them in coolers to the mountains, where wildlife teams hiked into the protected reserve and released the frogs near a lake. According to the aquarium, the frogs were divvied up into two groups: one for hard release and one for soft release.
The hard release frogs were immediately exposed to the lake. The soft release frogs were placed into a man-made habitat for monitoring over several days as they acclimated to their surroundings. This latter group received health screenings and were fed a variety of insects by the wildlife teams. They were then released into the same lake.
Varying the release times allows the scientific teams to analyze which method is better for the species to repopulate. Every frog was tagged, allowing researchers to identify the frogs in future surveys.
The release marked the second introduction of these frogs to the lake. More than 70 frogs were released in the area in 2023.
“Thanks to these efforts, Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs are hopping around Bluff Lake for the first time since they were last recorded here in 1951,” said Tim Krantz, conservation director for The Wildlands Conservancy.
As part of continued research, teams from all the organizations involved will continue monitoring the frogs multiple times a year, with the intention of releasing more in the future. All of these efforts come with the hope that the Mountain Yellow-Legged Frogs can be delisted as an endangered species.
Over the course of the past 100 years, around 90% of the species has been eradicated. Much of this has been attributed to introduced trout populations, which feed on tadpoles. Other factors in the population decline include pesticides (a risk for highly sensitive amphibians), a fungal disease and cattle ranching.
The species is broke up into two population segments: a northern one which has been listed as endangered since 2014; and a southern one listed in 2002. The first successful captive breeding of the frog occurred in 2009, when three tadpoles were raised at the San Diego Zoo.
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