Many creepy, crawly, furry, slimy and feathery creatures call the Little Campbell River watershed home. This past spring two Kiwi interns, Lynton and Anna Baird, were on the lookout for creatures of the ‘hoppy’ kind. The interns, with the help of Stan Olson, carried out the second annual wetland survey looking for egg masses from the Northern Red-legged frog. This threatened frog is under pressure by both loss of habitat and the introduction of non-native predators such as the American bullfrog. They searched 16 ponds across the middle stretches of the watershed – ponds on private land, ponds at the A Rocha Centre, ponds at the Campbell Valley Regional Park and even ponds on a golf course. Over two-thirds of the ponds searched contained egg masses from Northern Red-legged frog and over double the number of egg masses were found compared to the previous year. Though these results are promising, we will need to continue surveying for several years to come for us to be able to get a true sense of how well the Northern Red-legged frogs are doing in the watershed.

Email action@arocha.ca to find survey opportunities in your neighbourhood.