The Vancouver Aquarium released 2,500 endangered Northern Leopard Frog (NLF) tadpoles into a natural habitat near Cranbrook on June 16.
This is the Vancouver Aquarium's most successful year since we have started releasing tadpoles and our biggest ever egg mass. There is only one wild population remaining in BC, making Northern Leopard Frogs one of BCs most endangered species.
In 2013, Vancouver Aquarium became the first Aquarium in Canada to breed these frogs. The Aquarium has worked alongside the Wilder Institute, Calgary Zoo, and Edmonton Valley Zoo as part of the Northern Leopard Frog Recovery Team to protect the Rocky Mountain population of Northern Leopard Frogs.
The Recovery Team are releasing the tadpoles to help conserve the wild population, but frogs are kept in human care as an assurance population in case the wild population becomes unviable. Habitat loss, invasive species, exotic pathogens, and climate change. are the reasons why these conservation efforts are necessary in the first place.
鈥淣orthern Leopard Frogs are notoriously difficult to breed, and it is often dependent upon things outside our control, such as weather conditions before and during breeding season,鈥� said Andrew Cumming, a biologist with the Vancouver Aquarium. 鈥淲e are delighted that it was such a successful year for this program."
The Vancouver Aquarium was the first aquarium to breed the amphibians as part of an assurance population and part of a worldwide effort, along with other zoos and aquariums, to conserve this and other amphibian species under the Amphibian Ark (AArk) project.
鈥淭hese animals are part of our shared natural heritage as Canadians, and it is a privilege to take action to preserve them for future generations. I hope others are inspired to act themselves," said Cumming
Editors note: An earlier version of this story contained information from a similar tadpole release in 2023. That story was was written from a press release sent out in 2023 and inadvertently used in the place of a 2025 press release that reported a similar tadpole release in the region a few weeks ago at the end of June 2025. Black Press Media apologizes to the Vancouver Aquarium and deeply regrets the error.
