Leopard Frogs, Piping Plovers And Eels: The Rare Animals Of NYC

NEW YORK, NY – Hidden away in the urban jungle of New York City are some unusual animals that most residents have never heard of – never mind seen. As World Wildlife Conservation Day is marked Dec. 4, the city is sharing some of the secretive creatures that live in the five boroughs, and what it's doing to ensure their survival.

Among them are:

• Atlantic Cost Leopard Frog: Marked with leopard-like spots and emitting a unique "chuck" mating call, these frogs were once the most common type in New York City. Now, however, disease and habitat loss mean they're found only in a handful of places in the city, all of which are on Staten Island. The parks department is working to monitor the population and protect their homes.
• American Eel: Born thousands of miles away in the northern Atlantic's Sargasso Sea, these creatures travel down the Atlantic Coast and into streams and rivers where they live for 20 to 30 years before reaching sexual maturity and swimming back to their birthplace to spawn and die. Their populations have been greatly affected by dams that prevent them reaching their freshwater habitats. In New York City, eel ladders have been installed in the Bronx River and work is being done to remove barriers that stop them getting upstream.
• River Herring: The fish visit freshwater rivers with ocean connections to spawn, particularly the Bronx River. They return to the same waters in which they hatched multiple times, but overfishing and habitat loss have greatly affected their population. NYC Parks has installed a dam barrier in the Bronx River to help the herring and it populates the river with adult spawning fish each spring.
• Piping Plovers: These shorebirds can be found on Rockaway Beach in Queens from mid-March until August, but they're threatened after hunting for their feathers decimated them in the early 1900s. As of 2016, there were only 496 known breeding pairs in New York and New Jersey. NYC Parks closes about a mile of shoreline to the public each year to make sure they can breed undisturbed.
• Horseshoe Crabs: This crab lives in coastal waters and lays its eggs on beaches, including those in the Coney Island Creek and at Staten Island's Conference House Park. They are threatened by habitat loss and harvesting, being commonly used for fishing bait. The city monitors its population and, in 2013, restored habitat.

Lead image via New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife