An amphibious national treasure is rebounding thanks to a huge conservation effort.
The California red-legged frog, which has lost 70% of its habitat and is a threatened species, is thriving at a 2,000-acre wildland preserve, the Sacramento Bee reported.
The frog is the largest native frog in California and the subject of Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." In 2022, the Land Trust of Napa County started moving partial egg masses to the preserve, enhancing habitat, and tagging and tracking frogs. According to the Bee, more than 800 frogs have grown from tadpoles.
The frogs' survival rate is up to six times better than those in other restoration programs.
"The success of these ponds is remarkable, and future projects like this will assist in the recovery of these threatened species," California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Brian Shelton stated, per the Bee.
The frogs, which can get as big as 5.5 inches and even eat mice, according to the Napa Valley Register, declined in population because of habitat loss — ponds and wetlands were drained in favor of development and agriculture — and invasive species, the Bee reported. They were also "intensely" hunted for food in the mid-1800s.
Conservation efforts are vital in the drive toward a cleaner, safer future, as native species aid ecosystems and support the interconnectedness of all life on Earth. Biodiversity contributes to this ecological connectivity, which fuels everything from plants that grow from wind-blown seeds to animals that rely on generational knowledge to survive — and even humans, whose drinking water comes from natural sources and processes.
Elsewhere in the Golden State, coho salmon reaped the benefits of watershed restoration. Off the coast of Argentina, the third-largest whale species made its return after a near-absence that lasted almost a century. And trees are being chopped down in Japan to save forests.
And despite the mass die-off of species around the world — a sixth extinction that is the result of humans' actions — these and other ventures are working.
"This has been an outstanding opportunity to utilize our protected wildlands to support native biodiversity through endangered species conservation and recovery," Land Trust of Napa County stewardship director Mike Palladini stated in a news release.
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