Demise of repatriated populations of Mountain yellow-legged frogs (Rana muscosa) in teh Sierra Nevada of California.docVIP

Herpetological Conservation and Biology 2(1):5-21 Submitted: 21 September 2006; Accepted: 10 January 2007 DEMISE OF REPATRIATED POPULATIONS OF MOUNTAIN YELLOW-LEGGED FROGS (RANA MUSCOSA) IN THE SIERRA NEVADA OF CALIFORNIA GARY M. FELLERS , DAVID F. BRADFORD , DAVID PRATT AND LESLIE LONG WOOD1 1 2 1 1 U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, Point Reyes National Seashore, Point Reyes, CA 94956, USA, e-mail: gary_fellers@ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Landscape Ecology Branch, P.O. Box 93478, Las Vegas, NV 89193, USA 2 Abstract.—In the late 1970s, Rana muscosa was common in the Tableland area of Sequoia National Park, CA. Surveys in 1993- 1995 demonstrated that this frog had disappeared from this and other areas, even though the species was still common 30 km to the northeast. To evaluate potential causes of the extirpation, we repatriated R. muscosa eggs, tadpoles, subadults, and adults to four previously occupied sites in the Tableland area in 1994 and 1995. We surveyed the release sites every few days in the summers of 1994 and 1995, and once a month in 1996-1997. During the first week after release, survival of all life history stages was high at each of the release sites. At the end of the first summer there were metamorphosing tadpoles, and adult frogs were still present. However, we detected no evidence of reproduction at three sites and nearly all life history stages disappeared within 12 months. At the fourth site, there was limited reproduction, but it was not sufficient to maintain a population. It appears either that the causal factors for the demise of R. muscosa in the 1970s were still operating in the 1990s, or that a new limiting factor has developed. Dispersal, weather, water quality, and predation do not appear to be causative agents; because fish have never been present in the portions of the watershed where we were working, they were not a factor.