Florida Gopher Frog and Amphibian Research Program

Location: Florida

Summary: Cardno ENTRIX installed remote listening devices (frogloggers) to gather baseline data on the distribution, survival, and reproductive success of frogs, in particular the Florida gopher frog, on two sites proposed for future mining and on two previously mined and reclaimed sites on Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC lands. At each reclaimed site, Mosaic engineered an ephemeral wetland designed to meet the needs of gopher frog reproduction adjacent to uphill, xeric gopher tortoise habitat.

Recording began at the 21 wetlands in late May 2005 and continued for 10 weeks, and the tapes were collected weekly. Frog choruses were placed into size categories according to the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program, and the information was maintained in an Access database for future analysis. This process was repeated during the winter of 2005/2006 (six weeks) and the summer of 2006. During the summer of 2006, 80 gopher frogs were excavated from unmined lands and translocated to the two reclaimed sites (40 frogs per site). Each frog received a passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag, and its snout-urostyle-length was recorded. Each burrow was identified with a GPS location.

During the summer of 2007, monitoring began in an effort to document survival and recruitment of translocated gopher frogs. Monitoring involved installing drift fences between the ephemeral wetland and the point of release to capture frogs as they enter/exit the wetlands during the breeding season. Drift fence sampling was conducted from May through August 2007 over 18 trap nights targeting days with heaviest rainfall. One-way funnel traps placed in the mouth of gopher tortoise burrows were also used to help document survival of frogs and to determine movement of frogs between burrows over time. Monitoring was conducted during the winter of 2007/2008, if and when consistent rainfall allowed wetlands to retain water long enough for amphibian breeding. Upon completion of the study, a report summarized the results of the post-translocation amphibian monitoring that includes recommendations for reclamation techniques that may increase the suitability of reclaimed habitat for Florida gopher frogs.