“After nearly disappearing for good, Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs are once again hopping happily around California’s alpine lakes,” reports Smithsonian Magazine:
Scientists are celebrating the comeback of the amphibians in Yosemite National Park. Though they’re still endangered, Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs have made a “remarkably successful” recovery from the deadly amphibian chytrid fungus.
“The lakes are alive again, completely transformed,” says study co-author Roland Knapp, a biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.”
“You literally can look down the shoreline and see 50 frogs on one side and 50 on the other and in the water you see 100 to 1,000 tadpoles. It’s a completely different lake.”
Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs are small creatures measuring 1.5 to 3.75 inches long. They live high in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, at elevations between 4,500 and 12,000 feet above sea level. The frogs inhabit marshes, ponds, lakes and streams, where they feast on bugs and other amphibians. They also serve as a source of food for birds, snakes, coyotes and bears.
Mountain gorillas are making a comeback in Rwanda.
Bengal tigers are making a comeback in Bangladesh, as are Asian antelopes, and olive ridley turtles.
A giant fish believed to be extinct was found in the Mekong River.
Sea turtles are making a comeback in the Mediterranean, especially in Greece.
Crocodiles are making a comeback in Cambodia. Crocodiles are also flourishing in Australia after previously coming close to extinction there.
A giant pangolin was spotted in Senegal after being absent from that West African country for a quarter century.
Wild horses recently returned to Kazakhstan after being absent for two hundred years.
