The Northern Leopard Frog (Southern Mountain population), is designated endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. The population is threatened by low recruitment, disease, predation, habitat fragmentation and degradation, and introduced fish species.

Amphibian populations are declining around the world and species extinctions have occurred rapidly even in protected areas. Point Pelee National Park lost a minimum of nine species of amphibians and reptiles during the 20th Century.

The Northern Leopard Frog is no longer found in Kootenay National Park and is now endangered in both British Columbia and Alberta. In the 1990s, researchers conducted extensive surveys in southeastern B.C. and found frogs at only a single location, near Creston. In an attempt to prevent them from disappearing in B.C. altogether the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program recently reintroduced Northern Leopard Frogs at Bummer’s Flats, near Wasa, and this year the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners with funding from the Columbia Valley Local Conservation Fund are reintroducing the Leopard Frog into historical habitat found in the marshes north of Radium Hot Springs.

Read more about Returning the Leopard Frog to the Columbia Wetlands.

Story and photo by Larry Halverson

Article Share