Amphibians
Dusky Gopher Frog
Lithobates sevosus · also called Mississippi gopher frog, St. Tammany gopher frog
The dusky gopher frog is a small, dark, warty frog that once lived across the Gulf coast and now, in the wild, comes down to a few hundred animals at a handful of Mississippi ponds. It shelters in tortoise burrows, and when you pick one up, it hides its face behind its hands.
Overview
Lithobates sevosus is a stout, dark, warty frog of the longleaf pine coastal plain. Historically found from Louisiana to Alabama, it now survives only at a few sites in three Mississippi counties. Between breeding seasons it shelters underground in gopher tortoise burrows and stump holes.
One pond
For years the whole known wild population bred at a single small pond in the De Soto National Forest, with an adult count sometimes as low as 100 to 200 frogs. It needs open, fire-maintained pine forest beside fish-free temporary ponds, a combination that has nearly disappeared.
Hands over its eyes
Threatened, the frog often freezes and covers its eyes with its forefeet, apparently protecting them while it relies on camouflage and skin toxins. Its plight reached the US Supreme Court in a 2018 case over critical habitat.
Status
Critically Endangered and one of the most endangered amphibians in North America, kept going by prescribed fire, pond building, and the release of zoo-reared frogs.
Dusky Gopher Frog: common questions
How endangered is the dusky gopher frog?
It is among the most endangered amphibians in North America and one of the rarest frogs in the world. Through the 2000s and 2010s the entire wild breeding population was often just a few hundred adults, and in some years the great majority of successful breeding happened at one pond. The species has disappeared from Louisiana and Alabama and survives at only a small number of sites in southern Mississippi. It is listed as Endangered under United States law and as Critically Endangered on the international Red List, and its continued existence depends on active management every year.
Why did it become so rare?
Its habitat almost vanished. The dusky gopher frog needs two things close together, and both have become rare. One is open, frequently burned longleaf pine forest with gopher tortoise burrows to shelter in. The other is shallow ponds that dry out periodically so they contain no fish to eat the tadpoles. The longleaf pine ecosystem of the Gulf coastal plain has been reduced to a small fraction of its former extent by logging, conversion to dense pine plantations, and the suppression of the fires that keep the forest open. The temporary ponds have been drained, deepened, or stocked with fish. On top of that the frog breeds slowly and its small remaining populations are vulnerable to drought and disease.
Why does the frog put its hands over its eyes?
This is a genuine, repeatable behaviour of the dusky gopher frog and some of its close relatives. When a frog is picked up or otherwise threatened and cannot escape, it frequently goes still and folds its front feet up over its eyes. The most likely explanation is protection, since the frog's main defences are camouflage and a distasteful, mildly toxic skin secretion, so its best move is to stay motionless and wait for the predator to lose interest or get a bad mouthful, and shielding the delicate eyes during that time makes sense. It has made the species something of a mascot for amphibian conservation.
What was the Supreme Court case about?
In 2018 the United States Supreme Court heard Weyerhaeuser Company v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which concerned about 6,000 acres of private timberland in Louisiana that the wildlife agency had designated as critical habitat for the dusky gopher frog, even though no frogs lived there and the land would need restoration to support them. The landowners objected. The Court ruled unanimously that an area must first be habitat before it can be critical habitat, and sent the case back to the lower courts to decide what habitat means in this context. The designation on that Louisiana land was later withdrawn.