Rare yellow-legged frogs are returned to drought-hammered San Gabriel Mountains after decades of mismanagement, a rare success story.
In this photo taken last week, a small number of California yellow-legged frogs, which have been living in the San Gabriel Mountains for more than 90 years, hop over rocks in a pond near Lake Wert on the San Gabriel Mountains of San Gabriel County, Calif. The San Gabriel Mountains were a refuge for the species for nearly a century, but water from the mountain lakes and the occasional drought made it very difficult for the frogs to survive. (Photo: Joe Jusdanic/The Press Democrat via AP)
SANTA MONICA (AP) — A rare species of California yellow-legged frog that had been able to survive here for more than a century was nearly wiped out by a drought and an influx of exotic frogs, which were released from nearby ponds and then spread across the mountains.
But after almost 70 years of neglect, the frogs are returning to their old home in the San Gabriel Mountains, where they used to live for more than a century. The frog’s decline was so rapid that, in 2013, the state’s Natural Heritage Program spent $500,000 trying to save it.
In a rare success story, the frogs were returned to San Gabriel after an influx of exotic tropical frogs in 2013, and the state has now spent more than $5 million trying to save the frogs, which it calls Yellows.
Officials say there are fewer than 200 frogs left in California, two-thirds of them in the San Gabriel Mountains, though the exact numbers are unknown. They may be spread across other lakes in South and North County, in the Santa Catalina Mountains and in other inland areas.
The California yellow-legged frog is endemic to a small part of Southern California. They were discovered in the San Gabriel Mountains in 1903 by a scientist who was exploring a valley that was then a part of Yosemite National Park. In 1914, the species was designated a threatened species and the mountain that is the home of the frogs was declared critical habitat.
The frogs thrived in the San Gabriel Mountains, and there were only 5 or 6 nests in the entire world between 1874 and 1962, which means there was a huge population that would eat away the
