Happy news for nature lovers in San Diego: Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, has released 223 endangered Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs back into their native streams in Southern California’s San Jacinto Mountains — its second successful reintroduction of this beloved species.
The aquarium received the frogs as tiny tadpoles from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance last summer and raised them behind the scenes until they were ready for their big leap. In early August, about 74 frogs were set free along a creek near Idyllwild, where researchers spotted adult frogs from an earlier release — an encouraging sign that the habitat is recovering. A few weeks later, 149 more frogs joined them along a neighboring creek, while the Zoo Alliance added two more frogs and 170 tadpoles of its own.
To date, Birch Aquarium has reintroduced more than 440 Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs into the wild as part of a long-running recovery program with partners including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Visitors can learn more about this conservation success story at the aquarium’s Imagine Wild: Mountain Yellow-legged Frog exhibition. More reasons to love San Diego’s wild side!
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
