Yellow-legged frogs, nearly wiped out by a fungal disease, are now repopulating Yosemite National Park thanks to a reintroduction effort to save the species.
“This frog that has been pushed to the verge of extinction by this pathogen is now becoming an example of how we might recover amphibians all around the world,” says University of Calfornia based biologist, Roland Knapp.
The disease, chytridiomycosis, is estimated to have caused a decline in 501 species of amphibian worldwide – 90 of which are now believed to be extinct. The Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs were headed in that direction, having disappeared from 90 per cent of their historical range in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains and officially listed as an endangered species. Things took a turn; however, when this frog species naturally began to resist the infection, it developed a higher tolerance for the disease if it was already infected. Scientists began breeding the most disease-resistant yellow-legged frogs and reintroducing them to their native lands over 15 years. For these yellow-legged frogs, things have moved massively in a positive direction, and they are now becoming a subject of study as researchers try to find further solutions for this deadly amphibian disease.
