UPR’s Erin Lewis joined the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources at Diamond Fork on their annual surveys of a black spotted olive colored frog. Chorus frogs and cranes can be heard calling throughout the wetland area as the team conducted their work.
The Columbia Spotted Frog is found throughout western North America including in many locations across Utah. While not federally listed, the species is included on the Utah Wildlife Action Plan and is of great concern for conservation in Utah.
Kaitlyn Purington is a native aquatics biologist for the central region of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. She monitors Spotted Frog populations during the reproductive season.
“So it's something that the state puts an effort into, to understand a little bit more about our amphibian populations.”
Each spring warming temperatures awaken the frogs from their winter torpor and they emerge for the reproductive season. The species is one of the first amphibians to breed in the Wasatch front, beginning in March, making it a great indicator for breeding timing of other species in the ecosystems they inhabit.
Surveys allow biologists to monitor how frog populations are doing over the years. This can contribute to overall ecosystem monitoring in changing environments and can inform conservation.
“When we come out here, essentially, we're walking around these wetlands looking for egg masses. So the egg masses are kind of our softball shaped, and they're kind of clear, gelatinous, circles with a dark mass on the inside of it. And that tells us that we do have frogs breeding here.
Population estimates tend to correlate with water availability in suitable habitat. Many amphibians rely on proximity to water, as they respire through their porous skin and require water in order to avoid desiccation.
Breeding success has been highly linked to water availability. In drought years, the division’s surveys are observing fewer egg masses and in years with more moisture, egg mass counts are higher.
“This particular year at this site. We've seen the highest amount of egg masses here since we've seen since 2016.”
The high levels of precipitation Utah experienced last year have had significant impacts on wetland areas, allowing for more water and in turn higher breeding success for the Spotted Frog.
Purington and her technicians monitor the egg masses throughout development, until tadpoles are emerging from an egg mass.
“Stage one egg mass. This is a newly laid egg mass, it's very dense. The embryo within it really just looks like a small bead or peppercorn; it's more of a circular shape. And so stage two is something that looks almost like a kidney bean shape,” explained Purington. “And then stage three, we start seeing that developmental tail. And then what we call a three plus is where we actually start to see those tadpoles hatching from those egg masses.”
The team also records site selection and water quality, to further their gauge on ecosystem health as well as effects of changes in runoff from year to year.
