INDIANA—To restore the endangered crawfish frog population at Angel Mounds State Historic Site, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has relocated crawfish frog eggs from a thriving population in Greene County.
This marks the second year of this vital conservation effort, which aims to re-establish the species in an area where it historically thrived but disappeared in the 1980s.
The relocation project involves transferring egg masses to Angel Mounds, hoping to give the species a foothold in its former habitat. Additionally, DNR biologists have collected eggs for a “headstarting” project. In this initiative, the eggs will be hatched, and the tadpoles will be raised in captivity before being released as small frogs at a separate recovery site. The DNR is also actively seeking other suitable sites in western Indiana for crawfish frog re-establishment.
Crawfish frogs take two to three years to reach maturity and begin reproducing. Consequently, researchers will need to wait until 2026 to determine the success of these relocation efforts, assessing if the young frogs have survived to adulthood and returned to the wetlands to lay their eggs. Further egg mass translocations are planned for 2025 and 2026 to bolster the population.
The DNR’s work with rare and endangered species, like the crawfish frog, is partly made possible by donations to the Indiana Nongame Wildlife Fund. These contributions are crucial in supporting various reptile and amphibian conservation projects.
The crawfish frog, a state-endangered species, relies on specific wetland habitats and faces threats of habitat loss and degradation. The successful re-establishment of these frogs at Angel Mounds would represent a significant victory for Indiana’s biodiversity. To learn more about the reptile and amphibian projects the Indiana Nongame Wildlife Fund supports, visit the DNR’s website.
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