These endangered red-legged frogs managed to survive Woolsey fire destruction, survey shows - LA Daily News

National Park Service scientists say that some 28 adult red-legged frogs survived the Woolsey fire and subsequent mudslides in the Santa Monica Mountains, an encouraging discovery in their efforts to re-introduce the threatened species to the area.

“The fact that they survived all this is extraordinary,” said ecologist for the Park Service Katy Delaney. “We don’t really know what’s going to happen in the future, but it’s a big deal that these frogs survived the fire and the mudslides.”

The species of large, speckled and striped amphibians are native only to California and Baja California but have not naturally lived in the Santa Monica Mountains since the 1970s, and were federally listed as threatened there.

Delaney’s project to re-introduce the species to the area launched in 2011 and involved transferring red-legged eggs into streams. Once they grow to tadpoles and mature to 5-inch frogs, her team released into the wild and the species began to flourish.

A multiple day frog count at the project’s four sites just weeks ahead of the massive Woolsey fire last year found hundreds of the nocturnal amphibians.

But the wildfire — which consumed nearly 100,000 acres after breaking out in November 2018 —  and catastrophic mudslides, which destroyed pool habitats necessary for the frogs to reproduce, could have easily destroyed all their hard work.

While Delaney and her team is celebrating the survival of a handful of frogs in their count conducted in recent weeks, their long term persistence depends on whether the habitat can bounce back.

That’s dependent on weather conditions like rain, potential drought and more fires in particular.

Red-legged frogs have adapted to natural conditions of one major wildfire every 100 years, said Delaney. But human-caused fires in the Santa Monica Mountains happen on average every 8 to 10 years.

“It does cause problems,” she said of frequent fires. “It really doesn’t give animals and plants enough time to adapt in between fire events. And eventually, they won’t.”

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