Aquarium of the Pacific is raising endangered tadpoles
The Aquarium of the Pacific has welcomed tadpoles — which will grow into endangered yellow-legged frogs — that were rescued from local wildfire-scorched mountains, officials for the Long Beach aquarium announced this week.
Yellow-legged frogs are critically endangered. Fires last year in the San Gabriel, San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains — where the amphibians are a native species — made matters even worse.
So federal and state wildlife agencies asked local institutions to take in the rescued tadpoles.
The Aquarium of the Pacific not only obliged, but it also built a lab to house the amphibians as part of a conservation effort to increase their numbers in the wild. The tadpoles will be raised there and eventually released into the wild.
“We built this facility at our Aquarium specifically for these mountain yellowlegged frogs to do our part to help their populations recover,” Brett Long, the aquarium’s curator, said in a statement.
The frogs make their home in cool streams, at about 45 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit, which is one of the specifications of the aquarium’s lab so these amphibians can have the best care possible.
The United States Geological Survey, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Los Angeles Zoo, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Santa Ana Zoo and UCLA were among the other institutions that took in the tadpoles.
The extreme weather conditions that lead to wildfires and drought have threatened Yellow-legged frogs. The chytrid fungus, which causes life-threatening disease in amphibians worldwide, has also hurt the species’ numbers.
“Supporting this conservation effort, respecting signs announcing areas off limits to the public when visiting these local mountains, and reducing your carbon footprint,” Long said, “are all things anyone who is interested in helping can do.”