59 Frogs released at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in March!

59 Frogs released at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in March!

By: Graduate Research Associate Andrea Martin

In November, Oregon spotted frogs raised at Cedar Creek Corrections Center, the Oregon Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo and Northwest Trek Wildlife Park were released at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.  Sixty-three frogs that were too small to survive in the wild were brought to Cedar Creek to live the good life for the winter.

Four of the original frogs died, but the majority grew fat and healthy throughout the coldest time of the year.  The frogs weathered the January snowstorm very well, as generators kept their tanks near 70 degrees even as more than 15 inches of snow covered the prison grounds.

This group of frogs was the first at Cedar Creek to vary their diet with the Jamaican Black crickets the inmates have blogged about in the past. Unfortunately, the heavy snowfall insulated the hot cricket shack in January, raising the temperature to 113 degrees and killing a large portion of the crickets.  Luckily, the frogs didn’t starve.

On March 14th, SPP Project Manager Kelli Bush, Graduate Interns Dennis Aubrey and Andrea Martin, DOC Classification Counselor Marko Anderson, and JBLM Field Biologists Jim Lynch, John Richardson and Nick Miller released the 59 frogs that had survived the winter onto the military base.

Hopefully they are continuing to thrive through this very cold and wet spring!

SPP Frog Intern Andrea Martin releases an Oregon spotted frog.

DOC staff Marko Anderson tries to pick just one OSF at a time to release at JBLM.

Graduate Research Associate Dennis Aubrey and several frogs about to be released.

To donate to SPP and support the rearing of Oregon spotted frogs in Washington state, click here.

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