FORT FISHER, NC (WWAY) — A yearly tradition is continuing to go strong at the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher.
This year the Aquarium team is watching over 47 gopher frog egg masses from the Holly Shelter Game Land. The goal is to replenish the ponds with gopher frogs and restore their natural habitats across the state.
The challenges to saving this species in the wild are many including lack of rain and not enough water in the ponds, destruction of the ponds and significantly altered ponds that have been deepened and stocked with fish, according to a press release.
The wetland ponds where they live and breed have declined from 53 to just 14.
“For the gopher frog, the habitat must be ideal, and with so many breeding habitats lost or destroyed, our team steps in to create the right conditions for the eggs to hatch, and we raise the tadpoles to metamorphosis before releasing them back into the same pond,” said Ryan McAlarney, .
Through the headstarting initiative, Aquarium teams have released thousands of juvenile frogs into the wild populations. However, survival is low with only an estimated 3 to 4 percent of these animals surviving to adulthood.