# General Topics > General Discussion & News > Press / News Items >  AB Press: Frog recovery, one tadpole at a time

## Herp News

*CALGARY HERALD* (Alberta) 01 September 09  _Frog recovery, one tadpole at a time_ (Kelly Cryderman)
To protect frogs, you need to think like a frog. 
So says senior provincial biologist Dave Prescott, who is leading an effort to restore populations of the northern leopard frog--the largest frog on the Prairies -- in southern Alberta. 
"We try to imagine what habitat would be good for them so we know where to put them. And that's a bit of educated guesswork," said the Prescott, who is based in Red Deer. 
"We try to think like frogs." The amphibian is legally classified as a threatened species under Alberta's Wildlife Act. 
Prescott leads a provincial recovery team nearing the end of its five-year task of releasing more than 100,000 northern leopard tadpoles at 10 locations--including sites on private property, Crown land, provincial parks and two sites in Waterton Lakes National Park. 
A favourable outcome is not guaranteed. 
Previous reintroduction attempts have been less than fruitful, although the province has seen some successes in an area south of Lethbridge. 
And just last week, government employees found an early encouraging sign at one site:dozens of spotted frogs hopping around Beauvais Lake Provincial Park near Pincher Creek. It came just a few months after the painstaking process of introducing 11,000 tadpoles. 
"They were healthy and happy," said Heidi Eijgel, a provincial visitor services specialist in Pincher Creek-Lethbridge area. 
"You can actually see them with their little heads out of the water," Eijgel said. 
Once plentiful, northern leopard frogs have mysteriously disappeared from many of Alberta's watersheds over the past 35 years, including Calgary's Weaselhead. 
No one can pinpoint a single reason --everything from a fungus spread from African frogs once used for pregnancy tests, to drought cycles, to significant loss of habitat is thought to play a role. 
Prescott and other scientists believe the best strategy for halting the frog's decline is expanding the population to more of its historic range. 
"We're just trying to speed that process along and maybe help them by picking them up in buckets and moving them," he said. 
The sight of a small group of frogs after introducing thousands of tadpoles may not sound impressive, but restoring northern leopard frogs to their former glory is a daunting and often frustrating task. 
Northern leopard frogs--which may grow to a length of 11 centimetres --are fussy about their surroundings. The frogs prefer sloughs with no fish. They overwinter in water, instead of on land, and demand a water body that doesn't completely freeze in wintertime. They also need significant levels of dissolved oxygen in their water. 
And if they avoid being eaten or squashed during the always-hazardous tadpole stage, the frogs don't reach sexual maturity until age two or three. 
Prescott said even when the frogs are counted, it is often a case of mistaken identity. 
People often confuse more common frogs for northern leopard frogs. 
Historically, the frogs' range extended to Edmonton. Now, it goes only as far north as Red Deer--although there's a small, incongruous group near Fort Chipewyan in the northeast corner of the province. 
Prescott said the next couple of years will bear out whether Alberta's recovery efforts have worked. 
He added that it's easier to work to restore populations of northern leopards than other animal species because frogs aren't controversial, they don't take up much space and generally don't conflict with human interests. 
"People genuinely care about the less-common wildlife out there," Prescott said. 
"We all played with frogs when we were kids." 
http://www.calgaryherald.com/technol...997/story.html

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