Environment
Long Beach aquarium nursery gives endangered frogs a head start
The Aquarium of the Pacific has now raised and released more than 1,000 southern mountain yellow-legged frogs, including nearly 400 in its largest release this summer.
Hundreds of critically endangered southern mountain yellow-legged frogs are growing from tadpoles in a specialized nursery at Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific before being returned to mountain streams, the Associated Press reported September 29. The aquarium said 394 of the 653 frogs released in August were raised there, bringing its total reared and released since 2021 to 1,032.
What it means locally
The conservation program starts with tadpoles bred by the Los Angeles and San Diego zoos. Aquarium staff feed them several times a day, vary water flow to strengthen their limbs and introduce live prey as the animals complete metamorphosis. Staff told the AP that roughly 60% to 65% of the tadpoles survive to the frog stage. The work is part of a multi-agency recovery effort after invasive trout, chytrid fungus and the 2020 Bobcat Fire sharply reduced the species and damaged most of its remaining habitat. The accompanying 2007 USGS photograph shows a mountain yellow-legged frog in the wild and is not one of the animals released in 2026.
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