Endangered Red-Legged Frog Making a Comeback Thanks to the Santa Barbara Zoo
SANTA BARBARA Calif. (KEYT) - Behind the scenes at the Santa Barbara Zoo a conservation team has been working for years to help recover the endangered red-legged frog species in California.
Recently they brought tadpoles from a lab in Santa Barbara to the Santa Monica Mountains as part of the zoo's Headstarting program.
It is collaboration with California State University Channel Islands where the zoo is establishing similar and new programs in the future.
Egg masses were delivered and released to the frog's known habitat to help restore the population. A team of researchers had to hike in to specific areas and carefully do the release with small scoops of tadpoles. A large delivery was made to insure the best success.
This will help the species survive in areas known for wildfires and violent storms.
Some of the impacts were from the 2018 Woolsey fire that destroyed acres of habitat.
Santa Barbara Zoo Conservation & Science Associate Nadya Seal says, "I didn't start out as a frog lover, but I definitely am now, you know, especially being the largest native amphibian here. When you get one and you see one out in the habitat, they're they're just they're fun creatures."
The zoo has been working with the National Park Service to save this frog, California's official amphibian.
The zoo may be known for its 30 acres and about 500 animals that are visited and enjoyed by the public, but the behind the scenes work is also going to have impacts over a wide region beyond the Santa Barbara property.
Seal said, "my foot is really one foot in the zoo and one foot in the wild. And one of the things that makes Santa Barbara Zoo so great is everything that we have here on grounds, directly supports the mission off grounds, "
The current work underway, "signifies that we're going in the right direction with our habitat restoration, with our long term sustainability, with our species."
The frog population is important in many ways to scientists and it can help them understand if the water quality has an issue.
Seal said, "that red legged frog, is important to us as people. Frogs in general. They're considered what we call an ecological indicator species. " They can be a strong indicator on the quality of water.
She says one of the rewarding moments is when they have "seen huge, huge females at some of these sites. We've seen, wild breeding, that's what we're looking for."
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