Relict leopard frogs breed in late January through April, with peak egg-laying activity in February and March. Favored breeding habitat seems to be quiet, shallow pools outside the channel or slow-moving side areas of streams. Spherical egg masses of up to 250 eggs are attached to the stems of living or dead vegetation just below the water surface (“Natural history,” 2019). Due to the large amounts of the brood, the Relict Leopard Frog should have no trouble surviving in its natural habitat, regardless of natural predation. However, the Relict Leopard Frog’s population has been decreasing steadily in the past years. The reason behind this unnatural death, human activity of course, and the fact that we haven’t been able to slow mortality rates is quite frightening.
What’s Killing The Relict Leopard Frog?
Damming Must Go
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One of the most prevalent issues affecting the Relict Leopard Frog’s habitat are dams. Currently, one of the nation’s largest dams, The Hoover Dam, encroaches upon the frog’s territory, with the reservoir known as Lake Mead already destroying much of their past habitat. For its current habitat, the dam has disastrous consequences as well. By increasing the speed and force of the water flow, larger amounts of sedimentation enters the waterways and increased erosion further degrades Relict habitat. This sedimentation negatively impacts the frogs in that it suffocates them and the fish that they rely on for sustenance, further inhibiting the Relict Leopard Frog’s population and killing off more of the species. Secondly, erosion degrades the banks of the waterways, killing off the plants that the Relicts depend on for birthing their young, condemning their young to an early watery grave as they remain in their eggs. Furthermore, The Hoover Dam prevents genetic diversity by cutting off entire populations of Relict Leopard Frogs through the creation of fast flowing rivers that the frogs no longer can cross over, preventing the scattered patches of the species from mating with each other. This leads to a reduced gene pool, forcing the same frogs to continuously mate with each other throughout generations, with their being a minimal likelihood for beneficial mutations to occur, limiting the frog’s ability to survive and adapt to changes in the habitat through these mutations. (Environmental Impacts of Dams, 2019).
Cattle Needs To Moo’ve Over
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Agriculture has another ill effect besides water diversion and pollution. Fertilizer from farms, and fecal matter from cattle grazing washes into rivers. Polluting the water, killing the frogs, and suffocating their eggs. Livestock grazing has a much larger effect than what you would think. The Relict Leopard frog needs vegitative cover for shade, protection, and foraging purposes. When land is over farmed, the Relict Leopard frog loses valuable grasses for coverage and foraging. Not to mention the frog loses most of its habitat when cattle overgraze. Ranchers have a responsibility to keep their animals fed, but they also need to ensure their cows aren’t aiding the destruction of an endangered species’ habitat.
Lush Forest Or Concrete Jungle?
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Along the Virgin River, the Relict Leopard frogs habitat is being destroyed. Urbanization destroys ecosystems all over the world, and is currently taking over what used to be natural habitat for the Relict Frog. Pollution can be a living factor for most species as well, the Virgin River is surrounded by roads where chemicals from cars can run into the water disturbing the growth of native plants that are imperative to the Leopard frogs life. Invasive species also have a negative effect on the frog. Bullfrogs are known to eat them, and its large enough of an issue for the locals to step in and start killing them on sight. Population growth also contributes towards urbanization, and when you have more people in an area you need you expand. Meaning land that was originally used by native animals turns into parking lots and buildings that are no longer potential living space for our frog.
The Hurtful Hoover Dam
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The Hoover dam has created a reservoir, named Lake Mead, which has been used for water diversion for urban and agricultural purposes. The process of the water diversion disrupts their water. Relict leopard frogs need a still, quiet location to lay their eggs. The reservoir is challenging their ability to do so. The reservoir also replaced a vast majority of the frog’s valuable habitat space. Both the saviour and the dam are for human resources, again putting human needs above all else (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Office, 2015).
Biotic Potential
