Thousands of mountain yellow-legged frogs have been reintroduced in California as part of a nonprofit’s ongoing conservation efforts
NEED TO KNOW
- Over 3,000 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs were released into the wild in California in 2026
- The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance announced the milestone, an update to its conservation breeding and reintroduction program, in August
- The endangered species of frogs “have disappeared from 92% of their historic range,” per the NPS
Thousands of endangered frogs have been released into the wild in Southern California as part of a decades-long conservation effort.
So far in 2026, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has reintroduced more than 3,000 mountain yellow-legged frogs and tadpoles into the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains, the native California species’ historic range, the nonprofit shared in a press release on Thursday, Aug. 20.
Bred at the organization’s Beckman Center for Conservation Research, the tiny, speckled frogs have been reintroduced at several different high-elevation mountain habitats, including Bluff Lake in the Big Bear Valley…