Cute little threatened metamorphs

[Evan Jamison]

The staff at The Living Planet Aquarium has the great opportunity to work with quite a few sensitive Utah native species. Along with my success in raising Boreal Toads from eggs last year, I am now proud to say that I have some columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) metamorphs!! This frog is another sensitive species in Utah, and is on the decline in most of their habitat throughout the NW. There are only a few scattered populations left in Utah, and I was able to go out and collect a few partial egg masses back in May during a small snow storm. I now have some that have fully changed and are doing well. Here's a couple shots of the little guys.

One that has just started to resorb his tail


...and the first guy to begin changing, he has almost resorbed his entire tail, and is now eating fruit flies like they're candy


Full grown they will get about 2-3". They are VERY hardy when it comes to changes in water temp and hardness, but are hypersensitive to nitrate levels in the water (anything above 10 mg/L seems to cause developmental problems). This is likely one of the main reasons the wild populations are on the decline; heavy fertilization adding nitrate to the water, and livestock trampling all vegetation along the banks.

These little guys will go onto exhibit with our newly aquired least chub (another Utah sensitive species) in the recently opened Stewartship Hall. I'm very glad I get to be a part of this project, and hope to be able to do this again next year.

Thanks for looking!

-Evan

[Reediculous]

sweet Evan! thats pretty cool that your doing that! .....how in the world did you find eggs in a snow storm?

[tigerlily]

Congrats! What a cutie, although soooo small. Is the plan to try and breed these guys in captivity or eventually release or just display animals?

[muddoc]

Evan,
That is awsome man. It must be a great feeling to be a part of that, and help a threatened species to bounce back. Hopefully, you can get plenty hatching, and possibly introduce some to some untainted waterways in the future.

[Evan Jamison]

sweet Evan! thats pretty cool that your doing that! .....how in the world did you find eggs in a snow storm?

It wasn't a blizzard, just a small storm. These frogs breed very early in the season, as soon as air temps are in the 50s and it is sunny, so getting snow after spawning has occured isn't that abnormal. The water temp was about 40 degrees when we collected.... Brrr!!!

Congrats! What a cutie, although soooo small. Is the plan to try and breed these guys in captivity or eventually release or just display animals?

This group will just be on exhibit to help raise awareness of the plight of the species, but in the future we may be able to raise some up to large tadpoles or even metamorphs for re-release. The Utah DWR is currently doing studies to determine the survival rate of tadpoles that are raised in semi-captive conditions, so hopefully that will go well, and we can be a part of helping raise the breeding population of the species in certain reserve areas.

-Evan

[Evan Jamison]

Evan,
That is awsome man. It must be a great feeling to be a part of that, and help a threatened species to bounce back. Hopefully, you can get plenty hatching, and possibly introduce some to some untainted waterways in the future.

Thanks Tim! It really has been a treat to be able to work with all the threatened and sensitive native species we have. I'm surprised how few visitors even know we have these animals in Utah. Most people know the tropical exotic animals we have on exhibit better than the ones in their own back yard.

-Evan

[Ginevive]

Wow; that is awesome. I love frogs; they were my first herp love, and they are such cool little environmental barometers. It is awesome to rescue eggs, no? A few years ago I took in some wood frog eggs from a puddle (vernal pool) in the woods that was drying up; a day after I took them, the puddle was bone dry. I kept them in naturalistic conditions until they morphed, and thn released them.
It is a great feeling to help froggies.