Northern Leopard Frog Showing Improvements
Submitted by Robyn Duncan on September 19, 2011 - 13:35
Kimberley Daily Bulletin September 16, 2011
Angus Glass
EAST KOOTENAY Finding egg masses for the endangered northern leopard frog (Lithobates pipiens) is not an easy task. Once widespread throughout south eastern B.C. there are now only two known wild breeding areas remaining in the province. So when biologists from the Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program (FWCP) located 17 egg masses during the spring breeding season of 2011 - the most since the Northern Leopard Frog Recovery Project got underway in 1996 - they were ecstatic.
This is one of many projects the FWCP has led on behalf of its program partners BC Hydro, the Province of B.C. and Fisheries and Oceans Canada who work together to conserve and enhance fish and wildlife in British Columbia. Approximately one-third of FWCP projects focus on species-at-risk such as the northern leopard frog which is federally endangered, and red-listed provincially.
"Typically we only find between six and nine egg masses each year which really gives an idea of the fragility of the population in the Columbia region," says FWCP contract biologist Barb Houston. "So to find 17 is excellent news."
