AZ Press: Discovery Park new home of leopard frogs

[Herp News]

EASTERN ARIZONA COURIER (Safford, Arizona) 06 September 09 Discovery Park new home of leopard frogs (Diane Saunders)
Thursday was moving day for 26 new Safford residents — Big Mama and more than two dozen of her ilk.
It was a green day. The new residents — all endangered Chiricahua leopard frogs from Aravaipa Canyon — were released into their new ranarium at Eastern Arizona College's Discovery Park Campus. Most of the frogs are not fully grown, with the exception of four males and three females. The latter includes a large female dubbed Big Mama.
The ranarium — a scientific word for a frog nursery — is a 25-foot-by-25-foot cement block enclosure covered with a bird net. The purpose of the net is to keep out birds that could carry a fungus known to threaten the lives of leopard frogs, said Dave Henson, an EAC biology instructor.
Inside the enclosure is a pond approximately 16-feet wide by 20-feet long lined with cobblestones and bordered by native plants and grasses.
"It's a semi-sterile environment," Henson said.
He explained the cement wall was designed to keep out lizards and snakes. While the net keeps out birds, the openings are big enough for insects — a dietary mainstay for the frogs.
"We've got a lot of dragonfly larvae," Henson said. Fresh water continuously trickles in. Any overflow is taken away by a screened drainage pipe.
Plans for the ranarium began to take shape in June 2008 when the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service began working out an agreement with EAC.
"Discovery Park would be the perfect place for (the ranarium)," Henson said then.
According to Henson, about 80 percent of the leopard frog's natural habitat is gone from riparian zones throughout Arizona. The reason for the decline of leopard frogs includes invasive species, human habitation of their ecosystem and drawdown of water tables.
The ranarium will provide a safe environment in which the frogs can reproduce. EAC biology students will keep records of the ranarium and test the water each day to make sure it is suitable for the frogs. Young frogs will be harvested and taken to areas where their population has been depleted, Henson said.
http://www.eacourier.com/articles/20...7694394761.txt