Employees humorously comment on the release of endangered frogs in Washington

GRANT COUNTY, Wash. (KMID/KPEJ) – Conservation workers provided some interesting commentary while filming the release of nearly 400 endangered northern leopard frogs raised at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park into the wild on Aug. 8.

“Have fun! Make friends!” a staff member told the frogs in the video as they hopped to a lake in the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge in Grant County. “Remember, you matter, no matter what the bullfrog says,” he said. “You're going to do great things in the frog world. I just know it!” the staff member added.

For the past four years, Northwest Trek Wildlife Park in Eatonville has received “spring clutches of North American leopard frog eggs from the only remaining wild population at Potholes Reservoir, collected by biologists with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife,” according to a Northwest Trek press release.

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“Northwest Trek's keepers then raise the frogs in a controlled environment and monitor the overall health of their tanks, including water temperature, pH, good bacteria, nitrogen cycling and oxygen levels,” the press release states. “They also protect the frogs from predators and feed them.”

In the summer, Northwest Trek and WDFW staff will release the frogs back into the wild “with the goal of establishing a new population,” the press release states.

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