How A Long Beach Aquarium Helped Save A Threatened Frog Species

LONG BEACH, CA — For the last few months, scientists at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach have been working to help hundreds of baby California red-legged frogs return home to the Santa Monica Mountains following a series of extreme weather events that disrupted their breeding grounds.

National Park Service personnel had collected the vulnerable red-legged frog eggs in March and took them to the Aquarium of the Pacific, where scientists hatched and raised nearly 600 tadpoles.

Those 600 tadpoles have since been returned to the Santa Monica Mountains, an area where they were once thought to be extinct, according to Aquarium of the Pacific officials.

“We are so proud to be able to support the National Park Service in their work to help local populations of California red-legged frogs," Erin Lundy, Aquarium of the Pacific manager of conservation initiatives, said in a statement Tuesday. "Our partners dedicate so much time and expertise to supporting these local species, and it’s incredibly meaningful to be able to play a role in the important work that they do."

The California red-legged was once common throughout California. By the 1970s, the frog had disappeared from much of Southern California due to habitat loss, fungal disease and being preyed upon by non-native species.

Efforts by several wildlife and conservancy agencies to reintroduce the species back into the area began in 2014.

Although still considered a threatened species, the red-legged frog is now making a comeback.

“This project has had its share of ups and downs over the years,” Katy Delaney, ecologist with Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said in a statement Tuesday. “But with committed partners like the aquarium, we’re writing another hopeful chapter in the comeback story of the California red-legged frog.”

In a similar effort, the Los Angeles Zoo released hundreds of tadpoles and subadult southern mountain yellow-legged frogs into the streams of the San Gabriel Mountains earlier this month.

The southern mountain yellow-legged frog is an endangered species. Since the zoo began its conservation program in 2007, it has bred and released thousands of them back into their natural range.