History and status of the California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii) in the Sierra Nevada, California, USA.

Abstract/Summary

The status of the California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii), a federally listed threatened species, has long been uncertain in the Sierra Nevada range in eastern California, USA. We examined museum collections and historical records, and conducted 213 field surveys at 151 sites over 21 years to evaluate the status of this frog in the Sierra Nevada. We documented only 20 Sierra Nevada localities and one Cascades Mountains locality where R. draytonii occurred between 1916 and 1975, extending from Tehama County southeast about 405 km to Madera County. the elevation range of most of the historical localities was 200 to 900 m (about 40 km from lower to upper elevation), but three apparently extirpated populations that may have originated from deliberate translocations occurred at 1,500 to 1,536 m elevation in Yosemite National Park. We surveyed directly or within 5 km of 20 of the 21 historical Sierra Nevada/Cascades R. draytonii localities and found that at least one of these historical populations persists today, in large numbers. We also discovered or confirmed six new Sierra Nevada R. draytonii populations and individual frogs at three additional new sites, for a total of seven recent populations and three recent single-specimen occurrences extending from Butte County southeast about 275 km to Mariposa County. Historically, R. draytonii in the Sierra Nevada probably bred in stream pools, which tend to be small with limited forage and thus may have constrained the historical size and number of Sierra Nevada R. draytonii populations. since the 1850s, manmade ponds sometimes capable of supporting large R. draytonii populations have supplemented stream pool breeding habitat. Excluding the southernmost and Yosemite historical localities, the current range of Sierra Nevada R. draytonii differs little from the historical range, and further surveys may reveal additional surviving Sierra Nevada R. draytonii populations. Sierra Nevada R. draytonii are threatened primarily by habitat modification and loss related to human population increase.