Red-legged frog making a comeback in California

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]state frog was nearly wiped out, but now the red-legged amphibian is making a comeback. Brian Hackne spoke to the Bay Area scientists playing a big role.

[00:00:10]>> At the San Francisco Zoo, they're making good on a plan hatched a decade ago to raise thousands of threatened red-legged frogs in these tanks and restore them to where they hadn't been seen in decades.

[00:00:25]>> Ready? Oh no, these aren't going.

[00:00:29]>> Relle Styles and Cassandra Costello are with the San Francisco Zoo.

[00:00:34]>> That's a program that a lot of members of the public don't know that we do in San Francisco.

[00:00:38]>> And where are we releasing them into?

[00:00:40]>> We are releasing these frogs into Cooks Meadow, the you know icon, the gem of Yusede Valley as a a celebration of our 10,000th frog of our program being released.

[00:00:50]>> That 10,000th frog has been driven from the zoo along with a hundred mates. His name Twain, of course, after the famous 1865 short story starring red-legged frogs.

[00:01:04]>> Good morning and welcome. Welcome to Euseite.

[00:01:06]>> Surrounded by press on a beautiful day in May, federal agencies partnered with the Euseite Conservancy, the San Francisco Zoo, and local students, all determined to get the little amphibians back to where they once belonged.

[00:01:21]>> Red-legged frogs were wiped out of this community here in Yusede Valley. And through this partnership, we're able to rear the frogs in San Francisco. And it's a program that a lot of members of the public don't know that we do.

[00:01:31]>> They're very small and the world is very big.

[00:01:33]>> A hundred of the year old frogs are being liberated by kids from local Euseite schools who filed into the meadow. Pop the lids.

[00:01:43]>> You're not going anywhere yet.

[00:01:45]>> And there goes Twain.

[00:01:49]>> I think it is important to have kids participate in frog release events.

[00:01:52]>> Go.

[00:01:54]Rob Graco is an aquatic biologist with the park.

[00:01:57]>> To see a frog, to catch a frog, to hold it, to release it back.

[00:02:02]>> He did a good jump.

[00:02:03]>> It's so weird holding something alive in your hand.

[00:02:06]>> It's not worth doing in my opinion if kids don't get excited about frogs.

[00:02:11]>> The scientists are excited about their success.

[00:02:14]>> Yes, it's working.

[00:02:15]>> An egg in the wild has very little chance. These frogs lay about 2,500 eggs. You know, you might get 10 frogs from that. But when the egg mass is collected in the wild, >> you want to be very careful when you're manipulating them.

[00:02:27]>> And then raised at the zoo, you get a lot more than just 10 frogs.

[00:02:31]>> You can take that egg mass and 85% of those will make it. So now you have thousands of frogs.

[00:02:36]>> Oh yeah, there's some redlegged frog tadpoles down here.

[00:02:39]>> Already there's signs of success from last year's release.

[00:02:42]>> These tadpoles would have been from eggs that were laid this spring during breeding. So, a thriving amphibian colony >> showing that finally red-legged frogs at Euseite are bouncing back.

[00:02:54]>> This is the This is the point of it all, right? Is to be able to step away and not have to intervene in the future.

[00:03:01]>> Ellie, look up here.

[00:03:02]>> Kids are truly our future and are going to ensure that these species are continue to be recovered over how many generations beyond us.

[00:03:11]>> All right. Bye-bye.