AMPHIBIANS
ephemeral wetlands starting in late winter through early spring. No egg masses were found on WRC lands in the Sandhills the past two years, so we were glad to find the first egg masses of the season on January 29th, 2024 (the earliest breeding activity ever documented in North Carolina!). To give these Sandhills frogs a leg up, we work with our partners at the North Carolina Zoo to collect part of each
egg mass to be headstarted by their staff. Headstarting gopher frogs means raising the eggs and tadpoles until they metamorph into froglets which we will release back to their source locations later in 2024. Gopher frog headstarting efforts started in 2015 in the Sandhills. With few occupied ponds in the region, WRC biologists decided to reintro- duce gopher frogs at one Sandhills
Game Land pond. It has been 3.5 years since the first metamorphs were released at the reintroduction pond, and we are thrilled to announce the first calling males were observed and three egg masses were found in March! This is a huge win for the Car- olina Gopher Frog and we hope for continued success as more frogs are released at the site.
Gopher Frog egg mass (right) Ephemeral wetland (below)
AUBREY H. GREENE/NCWRC
35 2024 Wildlife Diversity Program Annual Report
AUBREY H. GREENE/NCWRC
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