News Room
Fixing the spotted frog’s love life in B.C.
By Jessica Linzey, Globe and Mail
Up on the roof of the Vancouver Aquarium, researchers gathered on Monday morning in Greenhouse A for the injection of 15 spotted frogs with a new hormone fertility treatment aimed at boosting the endangered population in British Columbia.
Dr. Trudeau is a reproductive endocrinologist who works with fish and frogs at the Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics at the University of Ottawa. After successfully encouraging amorous feelings there between leopard frogs – a particularly difficult species to breed in captivity – Dr. Trudeau rang up the Vancouver aquarium and asked if he could try his cocktail out on one of this province’s most threatened amphibian species.
“Fully one third of frog species are in serious trouble in B.C. It’s very dramatic,” he said. “But the spotted frog seems to do well in captivity, so I’m hopeful.”
That hope could be realized in a matter of days.
If all goes well, Dr. Trudeau’s injections will trigger a hormone release in the male and the female, inducing something called amplexus, when the male – having attracted a breeding partner with a light clucking call – grasps the female under the arms to mate. Eggs will then be laid, and by the end of the week, researchers should be able to determine how many of those eggs are fertilized.
The new treatment is part of a recovery program formed in 1999 in an effort to save the species from extinction. Eggs were collected from the wild, nurtured into baby frogs in a protected facility, and then released into their natural habitat.
Since 2007, the aquarium has been keeping adult frogs in captivity, and last year, successfully bred the first spotted frog. According to Dennis Thoney, Vancouver Aquarium’s director of animal operations, Monday’s activity was an experiment to see if a hormone induction could further that success.
Over the years, habitat destruction and the introduction of foreign invasive species like the bull frog have devastated the Oregon spotted frog population, reducing it by 90 per cent over the past century. As few as 300 frogs may be left in B.C., living in only three known ponds.
For the population to stabilize, Dr. Thoney would like for each of the dozen or so unique genetic strains of the species to have an “assurance” (or back-up) population of 100 to 200 frogs. In Greenhouse A on Monday morning, staff counted a total of 168 spotted frogs.
“We have a long way to go,” Dr Thoney said. “It is still possible to lose this species. We need to find the best habitats possible, and protect them.”
