Frogs 24/10/09

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife says about 500 endangered Oregon spotted frogs have been released this fall at a lake on the Fort Lewis Army base near Tacoma. It's the second year that the tiny frogs have been released at Dailman Lake, which is part of the frogs' historic habitat. The frogs once ranged from southwestern British Columbia to northeastern California. But loss of habitat and nonnative predators decimated their numbers, and the state listed it as endangered in 1997. The frog now is only known to be in Washington's Klickitat and Thurston counties. The frogs spent their first nine months in captive rearing programs at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo, Portland's Oregon Zoo, and the Cedar Creek Corrections Center near Olympia, where inmates helped raise them. *Seattle PI