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When a Chiricahua leopard frog wants attention, it snores — at least, its distinctive call sounds like a snore . But the sound of snoring around desert streams, springs, and even stock tanks is a lot softer than it used to be. Once found in more than 400 aquatic sites in the Southwest, the frog is now at fewer than 80. In Arizona, the Chiricahua has declined more than any other leopard frog.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Threatened
YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 2002
CRITICAL HABITAT: None
RECOVERY PLAN: 2007
RANGE: Desert and mountain streams and wetlands in central and southeast Arizona, southwest New Mexico, and northern Mexico
THREATS: Destruction of vegetative habitat by livestock; conversion of natural springs, pools, and wetlands to stock tanks; introduction of exotic species to cattle stock tanks; n onnative predators; water pollution; disease; drought; floods; groundwater pumping; isolated populations; and small numbers of individuals
POPULATION TREND: The Chiricahua has declined more than any other leopard frog in Arizona. Once found in more than 400 aquatic sites in the Southwest, the frog is now found at fewer than 80. Since being placed on the threatened species list, the frog has continued to decline, primarily due to mismanagement-caused population crashes at cattle stock tanks, the chytridiomycosis fungus, and the likely exacerbation of both by global warming.
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SAVING THE CHIRICAHUA LEOPARD FROG
Chiricahua leopard frogs need permanent water for reproduction, but that’s increasingly hard to come by: Southwest riparian areas are often destroyed by livestock grazing, groundwater pumping, water diversion, and dams. Some natural marshes, springs, and wetlands are converted to cattle stock ponds — a poor substitute for what nature provides, since stock-pond frog populations are prone to sudden death. Meanwhile, nonnative predators like bullfrogs, fishes, and crayfish feast on the frog, while fungal disease and global forces from elevated ultraviolet radiation to pesticides to climate change also take their pound of flesh.
The Center submitted a petition to list the species as federally endangered in 1998. When the petition went unacknowledged, we followed up with two lawsuits that finally paid off with a threatened listing in 2002. When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the frog, it included a special rule essentially exempting the management of stock tanks from Endangered Species Act restrictions — yet ironically, the agency’s strategy to recover the species has relied on the maintenance of these frogs in stock tanks instead of restoration of natural habitats such as springs and streams. Along with global warming and the little-understood chytridiomycosis fungus, this is allowing frog populations to continue to plummet.
The Center became part of the stakeholders’ group that developed a 2007 federal plan to recover the frog, and we advocated for reducing cattle, preserving springs, and removing bullfrogs on several grazing allotments. This frog needs critical habitat, and only restoration of natural streams and wetlands will secure its future. The Center’s Public Lands and Urban Wildlands programs watchdog the activities that are degrading our last desert rivers — including Arizona’s San Pedro, vital leopard frog habitat — and other aquatic ecosystems.
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Contact: Kierán Suckling
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