The Greater Vancouver Zoo, along with Wildlife Preservation Canada (WPC) and other local and national partners, are working to protect species at risk, with some BC natives being the Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly, Oregon Spotted Frog, and iconic Western Painted Turtle. These three conservation projects at the Greater Vancouver Zoo are led by Biologist Andrea Gielens (WPC) and Deputy GM & Director of Animal Care Menita Prasad (GVZ).

Proud recipients of the 2021 Colonel G.D. Dailley Award for Ex-situ Species Propagation

The Threats

Their largest threat is habitat loss due to development, agricultural land conversion, resource extraction and changes to water flow.

They are also heavily impacted by pollution, as chemical pollutants leech directly through their skin, as well as competition with, and predation by, invasive species.

How You Can Help

• Stay on the Path! It is strangely simple but staying on the designated walkways in provincial parks and campsites gives the local plants the space to grow and help species like frogs and butterflies.
• Limit the chemicals you use while gardening or landscaping and reduce how much salt you use on sidewalks in the winter. Excess chemicals and salt runoff end up in the delicate wetlands these frogs live in and can cause problems with their development!
• Get in touch with local conservation groups and volunteer your services for these beautiful species.

What We Do

Captive Breeding

By using a mix of wild-caught and captive born frogs we create a population to inhabit the habitats we work to restore.

Every year the populations are tracked and assessed to ensure that an appropriate amount of genetic variation is present to ensure a healthy and genetically divers population.

Head-Starting

Head-starting is when animals are reared until they are deemed old enough to survive in the wild and then released into their protected habitats. By helping them through their most vulnerable life stage the more mature animals have a much better chance of surviving.

Habitat Protection and Maintenance

Habitat loss from urban development limits the spaces these animals can live in. Oregon spotted frogs used to live in Sumas Lake, now called Sumas Prairie, as it was drained for agricultural use over 100 years ago. Today, and into the future, we aim to protect the few habitable spaces that are still available for these endangered frogs to survive on their own.

Restoration Recap

2024

The releases are hopping!

The impacts of the fight against chytrid fungus were felt this year but we were still able to release more than 6,000 tadpoles and 700 frogs into suitable habitats so far this year.

2023

25,000+ released to date

With thousands of tadpoles and hundreds of froglets released into the wild, the populations of the OSF are getting closer and closer to stabilizing.

Breeding breakthrough

New research and groundbreaking techniques increased the success of our breeding techniques to produce more than 20,000 tadpoles to be viable for release every season. In 2023, due to a fight against chytrid fungus, only 6,000 tadpoles were able to be released.

Stopping the spread

Wild animals often carry parasites or illness that can be passed to captive populations. Frogs are no exception and Chytrid fungus was a quick moving and devastating pathogen we had to combat! Rising to the challenge, WPC Biologists pioneered a new technique to better protect the captive born and wild-captured frogs for a greatly increased survival rate and 100% successful anti-fungal treatment that is now available for other frog conservation programs.

The Plan Moving Forward

Over the next 5-10 years we aim to increase breeding to more than 10 000 tadpoles a year.

In 10-20 years, with increased community engagement and 8 stabilized populations, we aim to reduce the necessary involvement to just observation and monitoring and let the frogs take it from there.