Scientists Release Mountain Yellow-Legged Froglets into Stream

This video captures a moment when USGS scientist Elizabeth Gallegos released 8 zoo-raised froglets into a stream, just one of several such reintroductions last summer. The long-term goal is to create 25 populations of a few hundred to a thousand frogs each. This summer, the team will revisit the sites to see how the frogs are doing.

USGS scientists are working with partners at federal and state agencies and zoos to reintroduce and study endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs to Southern California, where until last summer fewer than 10 tiny, fragmented populations remained. The frogs are threatened by a variety of factors including predation by non-native fish, drought, wildfire, flooding, disease, and other types of damage to their habitats. The tadpoles and froglets are hatched and reared at zoos before being reintroduced to the wild in promising habitats.

Partners include the US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha, the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Santa Ana Zoo, U.C. Los Angeles, California State Parks, Wildlands Conservancy, USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative, U.C. Berkeley.