If u like it cold..You are a Frog?

It's expected that the cold temperatures will put frogs in the mood. In their native Sierra Nevada habitat, the frogs start to mate after emerging from hibernation, which occurs during cold weather. This is the first time the mountain yellow-legged frog has been put into a refrigerated unit to induce breeding.

"We hope that by simulating the cold of the mountains where this critically endangered frog has been found, the San Diego Zoo will be able to increase the mountain yellow-legged frog population," said Jeff Lemm, a research coordinator for the San Diego Zoo. "The tadpoles we raise will be reintroduced into remote mountainous areas of Southern California where these frogs were found historically."

In their native habitat, the female mountain yellow-legged frog lays eggs as soon as the snow begins to melt. A female mountain yellow-legged frog can lay up to 200 eggs that hatch into tadpoles three weeks later.

The refrigerated units are actually converted beverage coolers, so the researchers used a bit of creative recycling on this.

After the frogs have hibernated for a few months in 40-degree temperature, San Diego Zoo scientists will begin to raise the temperature a degree a day to slowly warm them back up. The researchers expect to move the frogs to an area of the lab for breeding at the beginning of April.

According to Adam Backlin, an ecologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, there are only 200 of the federally endangered frogs remaining in the San Gabriel, San Bernardino and the San Jacinto mountains of Southern California. Sixty-one more live at the San Diego Zoos Institute for Conservation Research. The goal of the breeding program at the Institute for Conservation Research is to return frogs to their native habitat.

Globally, amphibians are on the decline because of habitat loss, nonnative predators, effects of climate change and the spread of a deadly pathogen called the chytrid fungus. The mountain yellow-legged frog is one of three frogs or toads on the federal Endangered Species List in Southern California.
The zoo's breeding program, in conjunction with its partners, began in 2006 after a forest service biologist with the San Jacinto Ranger District discovered pools where the frogs had been living that were drying up. Eighty-two tadpoles were rescued and brought to the San Diego Zoo's Institute for Conservation Research.