{"id":233,"date":"2020-08-05T11:53:20","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T15:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/?p=233"},"modified":"2020-08-05T11:53:20","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T15:53:20","slug":"the-comeback-kid-this-time-with-frogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/2020\/08\/05\/the-comeback-kid-this-time-with-frogs\/","title":{"rendered":"The comeback kid (this time with frogs!)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Erica Leiserowitz<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over a century ago, the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog (Rana sierrae<\/em>) was abundant throughout the watersheds of the Sierra Nevada mountains, located on the East side of California. But soon, this frog\u2019s life took a dramatic turn. With the increase of humans living in the area, and more and more visitors to Yosemite National Park, the landscape began to change. There was more development, more pollution, and some of their habitat was destroyed due to construction and pollution. Perhaps most damaging was the decision to stock naturally fishless habitats with nonnative fish (usually trout) so that anglers could fish for recreation.  Those fish predate on tadpoles of native amphibians, including R. sierrae, <\/em>which did not evolve with fish as predators. Then, in the 1970\u2019s, Bd (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis<\/em>), a fungal pathogen that causes Chytridiomycosis, a very devastating and lethal infectious disease, emerged in the Sierra Nevadas. All of these factors, and possibly more, led to R. sierrae<\/em> disappearing from >93% of its historical distribution. This story is, unfortunately, not a rare one, and is shared by many amphibian species around the world. But this is where the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog\u2019s story becomes unique. Despite the presences of disease, new predators, habitat loss, and more, the R. sierrae<\/em> is showing signs of recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog. Photo by Pat Kleeman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

              In a\nscientific article published in 2016, researchers studying R. sierrae<\/em> in Yosemite have found data that shines a ray of hope on\nthe world of amphibian conservation. The article is called \u201cLarge-scale\nrecovery of an endangered amphibian despite ongoing exposure to multiple\nstressors.\u201d Over a 20 year study period surveying the total population of R. sierrae<\/em>, they determined that the\npopulation increased by an average of 11% annually, which is a more than\nsevenfold increase in abundance over 20 years. These surveys involve\nresearchers and technicians hiking and backpacking all over Yosemite to get to\nvarious ponds and lakes, no matter how remote. At the sites, they walk around\nthe edges of the pond, count what they see, and take notes. These population\ncounts are compared to previous years, and allows researchers to notice trends\nin population size, but also how many individuals were infected with Bd, or how\nmany frogs are at one pond compared to another. I interviewed one of the\nauthors of this article, US Geological Survey Ecologist Patrick Kleeman. His\nresearch focuses on amphibians in Yosemite and the surrounding areas, and the\nresults of this study were as much as a surprise to him as they were to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt gives me a sense of hope!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained to me that from a personal level, it is not\njust exciting, but also very gratifying. It shows that there is a chance for\nrecovery for endangered species, and that protection policies have an impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alpine lake habitat of R. sierrae<\/em>. Photo by Pat Kleeman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

              It is\nunclear why the R. sierrae <\/em>population\nis increasing. It might be because the National Park Service (NPS) stopped\nintroducing trout into the watershed, and the number of fishless lakes\nincreased. It also might be that R.\nsierrae<\/em> is becoming resistant to Bd, due to Bd\u2019s now long-term presence in\nthe area. Because there are so many factors causing declines, it is often hard\nto pinpoint exactly what is causing an increase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patrick Kleeman says that this is why keeping up long-term\nsurveys is so important. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe might not have noticed this\ntrend if we hadn\u2019t been conducting large scale surveys in Yosemite since 1993.\nIt allows you to compare your data to the previous years, and notice changes or\npatterns in population.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A researcher conducts a dipnet survey for R. sierrae<\/em>. Photo by Pat Kleeman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I asked Kleeman why the public\nshould care about this increase in R. sierra. <\/em>He explained that even\nthough frogs like R. sierrae<\/em> may not be the most charismatic animals,\nthey are still important. Even people who don\u2019t like frogs should pay attention\nto global amphibian declines. Amphibians like R. sierra <\/em>are important\nparts of the ecosystem. They prey on organisms and in turn are prey for other\nanimals. Their presence is woven into the food web. Amphibians have also\nbenefitted humans directly, as they have been used in medical research.\n\n While\nthere are increases in R. sierrae<\/em> in\nYosemite, complete recovery is still a long way off, so the policies used to\nprotect this species, like preventing dumping pollutants into watersheds, or\npreventing stocking fish into naturally fishless areas still need to remain in\nplace. In the meantime, we are still cheering for the Sierra Nevada\nyellow-legged frog, and hope that other amphibians will also take their lead.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Erica Leiserowitz Over a century ago, the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog (Rana sierrae) was abundant throughout the watersheds of the Sierra Nevada mountains, located on the East side of California. But soon, this frog\u2019s life took a dramatic turn. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6012,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[643422],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-herpetology-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6012"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}