Green frog

While on a road cruise in March 2008, I came across an adult female Green frog. This is quite early for a Green frog to be moving around. Their breeding season is June-July. I captured this individual and she will be sent to froggy heaven :(. This frog is not native to this land, and is a threat to native amphibians.

Collecting OSF Eggs for Husbandry

3900 eggs were collected for husbandry in March 2008. They will be reared in the same facilities as 2007, which is the Greater Vancouver Zoo, and the Mountain View Conservation and Breeding Center. The top picture is a co-worker collecting eggs from the cluster of egg masses. The bottom picture is a close up of some eggs. From certain egg masses, we collect the eggs for husbandry, collect 3 for DNA, and then set out a cage close to the cluster of egg masses to monitor the embryonic survivorship of that mass. After hatching in the cages, the free swimming tadpoles are then released back with the others. A different number of eggs was collected from certain egg masses so that we can experiment with density and food this year in the husbandry facilities. The Mountain View Conservation and Breeding Center has 31 tubs, and the Greater Vancouver Zoo has 10, but 2 are still being used for frogs that were over wintered from last year.

OSF Egg Masses

Approximately 52+ Oregon Spotted frog egg masses were found in the Maria slough on Seabird Island in March 2008. The top picture is a cluster of egg masses, and the bottom picture is a close up of one egg mass. Each egg mass can contain 500-700 eggs! We estimate that one female and one male created one egg mass, and a different pair per egg mass. In 2007, there were only 21 egg masses!

Maria Slough Trapping

Using collapsible minnow traps, we monitor the wetlands to see what we can catch. The traps in the Maria Slough in week 17-20 March 2008, caught 2 male Oregon Spotted frogs (seen above). This was a huge excitement. The object of the trapping is to see if we can catch any Oregon Spotted frogs that we've marked and released from the husbandry facilities. These two that were caught this week, did not have any elastomer dye in their webbing. It is still nice to see that there are other adults out there that we haven't raised! These frogs were released shortly after catching and taking pictures!

Spring Bar Gravel Removal

Seabird Island worked with Jake's Contracting and removed 340,000 cubic meters of gravel from Spring bar February-March 2008. Seabird was worried that the Fraser river was getting to close to the reserve, and hoped that this gravel removal project would keep the river from flooding the reserve. 12 Volvo's and 4 excavators worked throughout feb-mid march and got this job done before it's deadline.

Environmental monitors were on site 24/7 to make sure that nothing went wrong and harmed the environment. No equipment was allowed to touch the river. The river will eventually flow into the extracted area when it rises. The water that is shown in the picture was from underneath the gravel, and not caused by an opening directly to the river.

Everything went well with this project. It was also in newspapers and TV.