Federal biologists have moved 500 red-legged frog eggs from the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve to the Santa Monica Mountains.
Expected to hatch any day, this effort will free these red-legged frog tadpoles of predators endangering them, officials said.
With the species being threatened, the National Park Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority all collaborated together to return these frogs to waterways where they have lived for thousands of years.
Surviving has been a test for these frogs since the 1960s because of fires, mudslides, pesticides, loss of habitat and fungal infections as well as being appetites for predators.
Having skin that acts like a sponge, these creatures succumbed to a skin fungus that has affected many amphibians around the world.
“The few frog populations that survived — including these red-legged frogs — have somehow persisted with the disease,” Adam Backlin, a USGS field biologist, said to the Los Angeles Times. “They seem to have figured out how to deal with it.”
The process of moving the frogs to Southern California has proven to prolong the life of the amphibians and allow for a population increase.