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Fighting to Save Colorado’s Boreal Toad

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

The Colorado Division of Wildlife is struggling to save a local amphibian from extinction—the four-inch boreal toad. Once abundant, it is one of many frog species worldwide threatened with extinction by the chytrid fungus, an infectious disease that is devastating amphibian populations. (See our recent post about some rececent promising chytrid fungus research.)

Boreal toad, Colorado

The federal government has refused to list the boreal toad as an endangered species, claiming it is genetically the same as a toad found throughout the West. Tina Jackson of the Colorado Division of Wildlife and other experts disagree. The toad is, however, a state-listed endangered species in Colorado and New Mexico, and a protected species in Wyoming.

The boreal toads were once common in Colorado’s Southern Rocky mountains. They were found near shallow lakes and beaver ponds at an elevation of 7,000 to 12.000 feet. Thirty years ago, the toads began to disappear. Habitat loss due to logging, grazing, recreation, and water projects contributed to their decline.

But by the late-1990s, the chytrid fungus was identified as the main threat to the toads. Several hundred toads have been raised in captivity and reintroduced to the wild, but so far these efforts have not been successful in producing breeding adults.

At two sites, in Larimer County and in Rocky Mountain National Park, a few introduced toads have survived their first few years. Some of these toads are now 3 and 4 years old, and officials will soon know if they will breed.

The agency has trained volunteers to look for boreal toads while hiking, especially in remote areas where in which toads have not been infected by the chytrid fungus. Toads reintroduced into these chytrid-free areas might have a fighting chance at survival.

For more information see:

DOW Doesn’t Want this Toad to Croak, by R. Scott Rappold, The Colora,do Springs Gazette

Tags: boreal toad, chytrid fungus, Colorado Division of Wildlife, Colorado toads, endangered toads, global amphibian crisis, global amphibian decline
Posted in Chytrid disease, People Helping Frogs and Toads | No Comments »

Toad Detour

Sunday, June 6th, 2010

Our last post was about Greek frogs on the move, but close to home, American toads are also on the move and are being helped by an organization called Toad Detour, as reported on Philly.com.

In early March, volunteers with Toad Detour helped adult toads cross a road in Upper Roxborough, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, to get to their breeding ponds. Now the Toad Detour volunteers are helping tiny toadlets make their way back across the road to reach their home in nearby woods. From May 23 to June 30, the Streets Department has provided a permit for the group to detour cars when the toads are crossing.

The toadlets have been traveling by the thousands, especially on damp and rainy nights, and will continue to do so for the next several weeks, according to Lisa Levinson, coordinator of Toad Detour. The toads temporarily halt their migration during dry weather. But nothing else will stop them. A 15-foot rock wall stands in their path, but they hop up and over it.

“One car will kill a thousand of them,” Levinson said. “It’s hard to see them. They look like insects, spiders, or more like flies.”

Volunteers are badly needed to protect the toadlets, set up road barricades, and distribute brochures about the migration, Levinson said. If you live in the Philly area and would like to become a Toad Patroller, visit the Toad Detour website.

Tags: American toadlets, American toads, Pennsylvania toads, Toad Detour, toad migration
Posted in Frog and Toad Migration, People Helping Frogs and Toads | No Comments »

Big Chill Helps Mountain Yellow-Legged Frog

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

One of the most endangered amphibians in North America—the mountain yellow-legged frog—might have some hope this spring due to the collaborative work of researchers at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research, along with the help of biologists at the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Courtesy of UC Berkeley, www.crcd.org

As reported in the Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California), researchers from the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research, which has a captive breeding program for the frogs, discovered that three months hibernation in near-freezing water is what gets these frogs in the mood for love. In the wild, frogs hibernate in icy, high-elevation streams, not in 55-degree aquariums. To mimic these cool temperatures, they were placed in clear plastic shoe boxes called “Valentine’s Day retreats” and stored in the refrigerators.

When they were removed from the refrigerators in April, they displayed breeding behavior within a few days. According to the institute’s Research Coordinator Jeff Lemm, “It has been wildly successful, and as a result, we could reintroduce about 500 eggs into the San Jacinto Mountains.”*

Only 200 individual mountain yellow-legged frogs exist in the wild. Once common in Southern California’s mountain streams, the frog species is almost extinct due to fungal infections, pollution, habitat loss, and predatory trout introduced for fishing. Researchers hope to re-establish wild populations with the captive-bred frogs.

Kudos to students, researchers, and biologists who are helping to save the mountain yellow-legged frog from extinction!

Please see the video below to learn more about efforts to save the mountain yellow-legged frog. This frog species was also featured in the episode Yosemite in the recently rebroadcast PBS documentary The Thin Green Line, about the amphibian decline, which you can watch online.

*As reported on the University of California’s Natural Reserve System site.

Tags: captive breeding programs for frogs, hibernation mountain yellow-legged frog, Jeff Lemm, mountain yellow-legged frog, PBS documentary frogs, San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, The Thin Green Line, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey, University of California Natural Reserve System
Posted in Amphibian habitat loss, Frog Conservation, Life Cycle of Frogs, People Helping Frogs and Toads, habitat loss | No Comments »

Vernal Pools: Woodland Nurseries for Frogs and Salamanders

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

This past weekend, I went hiking with my family in Harriman State Park in New York. We’ve had a very wet spring—well, actually it sometimes seems as if we’ve been living in a rainforest. It’s possible that all this rain will means lots of frogs and toads this summer.

While hiking we found a swamp and listened to a wonderful chorus of spring peepers and (we think) Eastern American toads.

My son Jeremy listening to a chorus of spring peers, Surebridge Swamp, Harriman State Park, New York

My son Jeremy listening to a chorus of spring peepers, Surebridge Swamp, Harriman State Park, New York

We also saw lots of vernal pools, bodies of water that appear in the spring and last from two to three months before they dry up in the summer. Some types of amphibians, crustaceans, and other wildlife need these pools for breeding, hatching eggs, or as a nursery while they are young. Because they are temporary, vernal pools do not contain fish (which eat tadpoles and larvae).

When you hike by vernal pools, they don’t look like much. In fact, my sneakers got soaked as I tried to jump over one. Yet they are of critical importance to wildlife. I’ve noticed, however, a lot of comments on environmental blogs that read something like this, “Only treehuggers would want to save these mud puddles!” Yet wood frogs, some species of salamander, and fairy shrimp need these “mud puddles” in order to survive. Every year hundreds of acres of wetlands are lost (usually forever) to commercial or residential development. According to the Ohio Vernal Pool Partnership

These usually small, but very dynamic wetlands fill with water, blossom with life and host a cacophony of sounds and a plethora of life forms every spring, only to disappear into the forest floor every autumn…. A vernal pool is a place where a good naturalist can weave many fascinating stories about the amazing life forms, adaptations, and life histories of its inhabitants, and demonstrate it by a single swoop of a dip net! Vernal pool is a miniature, fascinatingly complex and fragile world, with all of its drama played out every year close to our homes, and yet most of us have never witnessed it. [Ohio Vernal Pool Partnership].

: Salamanders and woodfrogs migrate from their wintering sites to vernal pools for breeding when the conditions are right, courtesy of The Vernal Pool Association