Mississippi Gopher Frog - Recovery Effort

Recovery Effort

A Gopher Frog Recovery Team oversees conservation strategies that include pond water supplementation in dry years, habitat management, assisting tadpole survivorship, captive rearing, construction of alternative-breeding ponds, and treating infected tadpoles. This program needs to be continued and expanded. Surveys are needed to check the status of the recently discovered populations, and to determine whether or not the species survives elsewhere. The recovery effort was greatly enhanced in 2007 by the donation of "Mike's Pond" to the Nature Conversancy.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been working with the U.S. Forest Service to protect the last remaining Mississippi gopher frog population. Both agencies have joined forces to rehabilitate a nearby pond as a future breeding site. The Fish and Wildlife Service, in conjunction with gopher frog researchers, has developed a strategy to introduce egg masses into this pond and to determine if the eggs can successfully develop into juvenile frogs at the site. Maintenance of open longleaf pine-dominated uplands and seasonal wetlands through growing season prescribed burning is the most appropriate form of management. This management strategy also favors gopher tortoises as well. Mechanical site preparation, as well as stump removal, should be avoided in forestry operations. Obviously, all known and potential breeding sites should be protected.

Five zoos (New Orleans, Memphis, Detroit, Miami, and Omaha) have 75 Mississippi gopher frogs in captivity, and are conducting ongoing artificial breeding programs.