Birch Aquarium at Scripps finds new home for hundreds of endangered frogs
LA JOLLA, Calif. (FOX5/KUSI)-- The Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego teamed up with several organizations to help give an endangered species of frog a new lease on life.
The aquarium in La Jolla partnered with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA), UCLA, Big Bear Alpine Zoo, and other organizations to reintroduce over 350 Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs back into the wild, according to a press release from Birch Aquarium on Tuesday.
The amphibians' new home is situated in the San Bernardino Mountains, near a lake that provides a suitable environment for the frogs to thrive.
To reach their destination, the frogs were gently placed in coolers and then carefully transported up the mountain to their new home, located along a lake within the protected reserve.
The Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs were divided into two groups before being released. The first group of "hard-release" frogs was immediately introduced into the lake.
The second group of "soft-release" frogs was temporarily put into a specially designed habitat near the lake and closely monitored for several days to allow them to acclimate to their new environment. They were then released in the lake with the other group.
Releasing the frogs in two stages allows researchers to evaluate which method is most effective for the frogs' long-term survival. Each frog was also microchipped with a Passive Integrated Transponder tag to enable researchers to monitor the newly housed amphibians.
Of the 350 released frogs, 220 of them were raised at the Birch Aquarium, and the rest were raised at SDZWA and UCLA.
“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,” Tim Krantz, conservation director for The Wildlands Conservancy, said in a press release.
The leaping event marked the first species reintroduction for the Birch Aquarium at Scripps.
Researchers will continue to monitor the endangered frogs in their new environment, with the goal of releasing more frogs to the site in the future.
