Long Beach Aquarium to release endangered frogs

Critically endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs who were raised and cared for at Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific are being released back into their habitat in the Southern California mountains to help rebuild their populations, the aquarium announced Sunday.

“The Aquarium’s amphibian team (has) taken special care of these frogs over the past year, and we are very gratified to have had a hand in helping this local endangered species,” said Brett Long, the Aquarium’s curator of mammals and birds.

After the Bobcat Fire in 2020 that threatened the cold-water streams where the species lives, government wildlife agencies rescued the remaining mountain yellow-legged frogs and tadpoles from these areas and placed them with local institutions such as the Aquarium of the Pacific and other partner facilities.

The aquarium has been caring for and raising around 125 wild tadpoles hatched in April 2020 and about 150 hatched in 2021 at the Los Angeles Zoo, one of the other facilities in the partnership.

Officials said previous wild releases showed that the frogs were most successful when released as froglets who had metamorphosed out of the tadpole stage. The aquarium’s tadpoles began to metamorphose into froglets in the spring and summer of 2022, making them good candidates for release.

Several organizations have helped in the effort. Scientists and officials from the U.S. Geological Survey and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife monitor wild populations and oversee releases, and the release site was approved by California State Parks.

Mountain yellow-legged frogs are native to California’s mountainous regions and depend on habitats in the San Gabriel, San Bernardino and the San Jacinto Mountains. The public can support the conservation effort by staying on marked trails and paths and respecting signs announcing off-limits areas when visiting local mountains.