Endangered frogs take leap forward at Columbia Wildlife Refuge

COLUMBIA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE — As they were tipped out of sterile plastic containers into the murky environment of the Columbia Wildlife Refuge’s ponds on a cloudy Friday morning, hundreds of tiny northern leopard frogs huddled together, unsure of their alien environs.

This was, after all, their first glimpse of the wild. Collected as eggs earlier this spring by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and grown for months in the Oregon Zoo’s conservation lab and at Washington State University, the frogs have lived pampered and sheltered lives until this day.

Finally, with a little cajoling from a friendly scientist, the juvenile croakers — around the size of a thumbnail — finally began to leap one by one into the waters of their new home.

The project, done through a partnership between the WDFW, WSU, the Oregon Zoo and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, serves to bolster the population of the endangered northern leopard frog, which was once abundant throughout the Pacific Northwest.

However, habitat loss, disease, competition from non-native species and the compounding effects of climate change have all likely contributed to knocking the wind out of the spotted amphibian, according to the WDFW. The species landed on the endangered species list in Washington in 1999, and there is currently one known population left in the Evergreen State.

Researchers with the partner agencies are working to turn that trend around, raising the northern leopard frogs from eggs to froglets in order to bypass many of the dangers threatening the species.