SOUTHEASTERN PARTNERS IN AMPHIBIAN AND REPTILE CONSERVATION TASK TEAM: AREOLATA/CAPITO/SEVOSA 18 February 2012 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM CHAIR:

Mike Lannoo

MINUTES TAKEN BY:

Nathan Engbrecht

TASK TEAM GOAL:

This task team is composed of persons interested in the biology and conservation status of the eastern United States ranid clade consisting of Lithobates (Rana) capito, L. sevosus, and L. areolatus. The ultimate goals of this task team will be: 1) to understand the biology of these three species, in order to 2) ensure that all three species are on a secure conservation footing moving into the future.

MEETING ATTENDEES: Jeff Hall, Mike Sisson, Dan Saenz, Michael Fulbright, Keri Landry, Kathy Shelton, Cara Love, Bess Harris, Joe Pechmann, Schyler Nunziata, Michelle Guidugli, Richard Cassell, Joyce Klaus, Kevin Enge, Bret Kuss, John MacGregor, James Kiser, John Jensen, Mark Bailey, Jaimie Klemish, Vanessa Kinney, Robert Hill, Sean Doody, David Brothers, Jeff Humphries, Nate Engbrecht, Steve Spear, Mike Lannoo (more may have arrived after sign-ups) Sevosa: Upcoming meeting at Memphis Zoo March 10 and 11 to discuss issues related to captive breeding. Joe Pechmann: No breeding last spring, dry pond. Some breeding in September (6 egg masses). Collected some for head starting, but tadpoles were lost. Eggs in field hatched fine. Pond dried on 2 Nov. All died except for possibly 50 or so that that were dipnetted and put into cattle tanks. Telemetry was performed on adults that bred in Sept. Continuing terrestrial enclosure experiment. Cameras are on individuals that they tracked to compare burrow activity with enclosures [comparing individuals in enclosures to wild ones?]. They may upgrade to newer, better cameras. TNC bought frog loggers; Pechmann bought hydrophones to put on them. Two more possible sevosa ponds (based on habitat) that the frog loggers are at; loggers are also at some others sites. Mike Sisson: Critical habitat topic. Buffer recommendation for sevosa went from 600 m down to 570 m. It’s still open for review until March 2. This is a questionable buffer that is not based on much data. The longest range at Glenn’s pond is ~300 m(?). Joe Pechmann made comments on how buffers are created (distances from breeding ponds). Comments about the proposed buffer distance from biologists are appreciated.

Areolata Kentucky, John Macgregor: Areolata samples sent in for Rana virus study. Areolata survived pretty good when exposed to Rana virus. John had metamorphs starting June 9 at least through July 18, possibly into August. Monitored with drift fences; caught 15 or so Crawfish Frog metamorphs. Had a really good breeding site full of tadpoles that went dry in mid-May (a shallow scrape [borrow pit] created by removing dirt used to make a moist soil unit); thousands lost. Has volunteers from Murray State University to do population estimates on calling males. Tennessee: Nobody representing TN was present. Mississippi, Kathy Shelton: No real updates. Tom Mann is not present. Texas, Dan Saenz: confirmed recording in Texas, west of Houston. Last confirmation before this is 300 miles away, near Texarcana. Indiana: Mike Lannoo discussed his poster about frogs east of Mississippi River. 86 counties with historic data, about 34 with “recent records”. In Indiana, declines have occurred within counties. Schyler Nunziata did genetics on Indiana pops. Statewide Indiana has less than 1000 estimated breeding adults. Population sizes are largest (“depth”) at Big Oaks NWR and Hillenbrand FWA; pops on private lands represent genetic “breadth”. Management at Hillenbrand is toward quail, and seems to be detrimental to the frogs. Mike met with TNC, NRCS, Conservation Law Institute at Indiana University. He has an upcoming meeting with Peabody Coal. Egg laying: ~98% survivorship. Larva, less than 1% survivorship. Four of 286 metamorphs from Nate’s Pond showed up 2 years later as breeding adults. Adult survivorship is between 40 and 60 percent annually. Frogs in burrows are 12X less likely to be preyed upon compared to migrating or ranging Crawfish Frogs. The frogs appear to have long life spans, stochastic reproduction; populations persist when adults survive. Burrows found as far as 1.2 kilometers from breeding wetlands. A buffer of about 500m would protect 50% of burrows. Heemeyer’s upcoming paper recommends a 1.2 km buffer around a breeding wetland. Frogs return to same burrows following breeding, year after year. They exhibit burrow philopatry but not necessarily wetland philopatry. Juveniles probably represent dispersal stage, not adults. Mike Sisson did juvenile telemetry at Lannoo’s study site in summer of 2011. This was a challenge because of size and skin abrasion. Joyce Klause: Would a buffer limit what management can do at these properties? Lannoo: Fall fires do not affect adults, which is the critical life state. Juveniles may get hit. Spring burns could be catastrophic to migrating/breeding adults. Mid-contract management for quail, which involves disking to promote the growth of annuals, is problematic for Crawfish Frogs. Removal of trees via chainsaw would be less harmful than soil disturbance. Lannoo: Discussed burn study after a fall (August) burn. Burrow surveys in 20 ha; 5904 holes in ground, 12 looked like areolata burrows, 4 burrows had Crawfish Frogs. He set up wildlife cameras at burrows and 4 at frogs in vegetated burrows. At night there were

no differences, during the day frogs in burns tended to hang out at or in burrow entrance whereas frogs in veg were out more. Telemetry study had ~45 animals, total 8,000 telemetered frog days. Mark Bailey: what’s the “balloon trick”? Lannoo described a technique for flushing frogs out of burrows using a balloon attached to a hose attached to a bicycle pump. Frog is flushed to surface and inflating the balloon in the burrow plugs the burrow below the frog, and the frog can be captured. Humphries and Sisson use a funnel trap at burrow entrance to catch capito. Joe Pechmann: Did Lannoo recommend fall burns for areolata? Lannoo: Spring frogs migrate after rains, and if a rain is not extensive enough, a spring burn could take out migrating adults. Summer burns are not possible at Lannoo’s study site because of Henslow’s Sparrows burn restrictions (April 15 to Aug. 15th). Fall burn also killed 18 eastern Box Turtles at Lannoo’s study site. Lannoo: Crayfish will sometimes take over a burrow when a Crawfish Frog is gone for breeding. Dan Saenz: What other recommendations would you have for prescribed burns? Dan noted that in Texas they typically don’t burn after May; it’s just too hot. Now is the peak burn season in Texas. Kevin Enge noted that in Florida not all frogs breed in the same ponds at the same time. Lannoo: for Texas areolata, do they follow areolata model or capito/sevosa model? What works best for them? Lannoo noted that his data may be atypical because they are up north and on a reclaimed coal mine, and that mowing doesn’t affect areolata. James Kiser: Could Indiana do winter burns? Lannoo: winter is hunting season in Indiana. Kiser: Do Lannoo’s Crawfish frogs disperse randomly? Could you cooperate with managers in regards to where frogs are at? Lannoo: We had a nonew-plow agreement with the previous land manager, which he concurred with; the current manager is less cooperative. Capito Jeff Humphries about Capito: A goal has been to determine where the frogs are still at. Dot maps or county maps are important. NC has gone from 30 to 7 populations, and presenting these kinds of maps to political people have had positive results (reaction). Telemetry has shown migrations of 3.5 km to a burrow. Gopher frog will be (or was) the NC state fair animal. Buttons, drift fences, games involving launching gopher frog (models) with rubber bands into stump holes at the fair. Maybe less than 1000 animals in NC. Has captured frogs 5.6 km from the only known breeding pond in the area. A “population” is cut off at 4 km between sites. Kevin Enge: 295 extant (2000-12) ponds on public conservation lands in Florida (70 ponds in Ocala National Forest, ca. 10 known before surveys started in 2006). If breeding ponds are unknown on a conservation land but frogs have been incidentally observed, I’m only counting 1 breeding pond, even if observations are widely dispersed. 25 extant ponds occur on private lands. Capito is a reasonably common frog in peninsular Florida.

It has undoubtedly declined, but populations are still present wherever suitable upland and wetland habitats occur. There is no water in ephemeral wetlands in northern Florida this winter. The only ponds with water are south of Orlando in areas that received heavy rainfall in late October. At Archbold Biological Station, frogs bred during October but all the ponds dried in January killing half-grown tadpoles (Betsie Rothermel, pers. comm.). Nobody has systematically surveyed the Panhandle, except for Apalachicola National Forest (ANF) and Eglin Air Force Base, which is probably why there are relatively few ponds known. Since 2000, no one has checked any Panhandle ponds, except at ANF. I’ll try to figure out how many populations are present in Florida. Humphries: the rest of the states are down to 15 sites or less (probably). How should a map be made? Is publishing a good idea? Is it safe? North Carolina: 7 pops. (6 pops if you group 2 together) South Carolina: David Scott e-mailed Humphries about SC. SREL: 11 metamorphs at SREL (5 died?). Humphries: frogs seem to be at 4 areas in SC, but number of pops is unknown. Ten additional sites since 2002 at SRS. Cara Love: New sites are removed geographically from historic sites. Everything has been really dry. (Humphries summarized that there were 7 original sites, 3 remain, and 10 new ones were discovered). Alabama: Mark Bailey, 1 population, 2 others that have not been identified (confirmed) in 10 years or so. Maybe 3 pops at best. Georgia, John Jensen: Have 16 known extant pops, 11 on protected land. Nine pops on private land thought to be extirpated. Two are uncertain status (not seen since 1987, 1976). Five literature records with too vague of collection data to locate. Two miles distance was used to define different populations not separated by significant barriers (e.g. wide creeks or rivers). Ichauway and Fort Stewart have population/site clusters. Sisson: Defining a site needs to be determined. Humphries: Will have a map at next years meeting. Lannoo: Would Richter be interested in genetics work? Schyler Nunziata: Richter is working on the Florida genetics and if they are distinct from other capito pops. Lannoo: Threatening to federally list a species is powerful. MacGregor: Has anyone tried artificial burrows? Lannoo: We have no evidence that burrows are limited. Humphries: For gopher frogs, burrows are really limited. Jen Evans: Any products from today’s meeting can be put up on the SEPARC website. Continuing discussion can be done on “Linked in”. Contact SEPARC.org with questions

Kimberly Andrews is open to information about how climate change might affect these frogs. The meeting is adjourned.