Rare Frog Species Survives Major Wildfire, Scientists Discover

A year after the Mosquito Fire scorched much of Northern California, a rare species of frog has been found to have survived the huge blaze.

One of the largest populations of California red-legged frogs lived in Big Gun Conservation Bank in Michigan Bluff, California. However, there were fears that this group may have been wiped out by the blaze: until now.

The Mosquito Fire burned for 46 days, having started on September 6, 2022. It resulted in 76,000 acres of National Forest and privately-owned lands being burned, destroying several homes and large areas of animal habitat.

Nevertheless, the tenacious little frog has been spotted back in the burned area, providing hope to conservationists about the future of the species.

"The Mosquito Fire went right through one of the most robust populations of the frog in the Sierra Nevada. It will take time for this area to recover, but the fact that this frog is still here shows the resiliency of wildlife," Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office's Sierra Cascades Division Supervisor Rick Kuyper said in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service statement.

The frogs are one of the largest native frog species in the western U.S., growing as large as 5.5 inches. Their populations dwindled because of over-harvesting for food in the 19th and 20th centuries, and continue to be threatened by the destruction of their wetland habitats because of encroachment of farm land and residential areas.

They are now listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as near-threatened as of 2021, and are federally listed as a threatened species.

Before the blaze, conservationists had been working to expand the frog's range, with 19 ponds being provided in the Tahoe National Forest to help the frogs populate a bigger area. After the fire, it was feared that the frogs may have been wiped out.

"When we got out to the ponds on the Tahoe National Forest, we could see that the area burned at a very high intensity. Almost every tree and shrub surrounding the ponds was killed, and most of the downed logs were completely consumed. We also saw that the water in the ponds was very cloudy due to the unstable soils left behind from the fire," Ian Vogel, a senior wildlife biologist with the service's Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office, said in the statement.

Thankfully, a frog was spotted in the remains of one of the ponds at Big Gun Conservation Bank last month.

"Even though the area burned at high severity, the vegetation will eventually return. As the land and frog populations recover, we think it's likely the frogs will expand to the ponds on the Tahoe National Forest," said Vogel.

The scientists hope to return to the area in the spring, after the frogs' November through April breeding season, to investigate if the ponds become successful breeding grounds.

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