Lindsey Landowski, Patoka National Wildlife Refuge in southern Indiana, holds a bullfrog collected during field work for the Abnormal Amphibian Monitoring Project. USFWS photo by Robin M. Munson.

Southern leopard frog with partially missing calf from Patoka National Wildlife Refuge in southern Indiana. USFWS photo by Robin M. Munson.

Mike Tosick and Lindsey Landowski collect southern leopard frogs at Patoka National Wildlife Refuge in southern Indiana for the National Abnormal Amphibian Monitoring Project. USFWS photo by Robin M. Munson.

Southern leopard frog from Patoka National Wildlife Refuge in southern Indiana with missing right eye. USFWS photo by Robin M. Munson.

This year was the ninth year of field work for the National Abnormal Amphibian Monitoring Project.  The Bloomington Field Office, with assistance from the East Lansing Field Office, coordinates and performs fieldwork for the project for Region 3.  Staff, volunteers and interns from each participating refuge also provided valuable fieldwork and support. Through this collaborative effort, over 750 amphibians from six refuges were collected and examined this summer in Region 3.

Sampling consists of collecting frogs from a minimum of two different sites per refuge and examining the frogs for gross abnormalities. Additional diagnostic work, including parasitological evaluations, histological analysis and radiography, is performed on numerous abnormal specimens.

Each refuge is sampled at least two years or longer, depending on the incidence of abnormalities

From 2000-2002, abnormal frogs were sent to the USGS’s National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin, for further examination and radiographic analysis. Frogs from 2003 through the present have been radiographed by Dr. Mike Lannoo of the Indiana University School of Medicine Medical Education Center at Indiana State University.  Also starting in 2003, a subset of abnormal frogs from various refuges has been submitted for parasitological analysis, either to the late Dr. Dan Sutherland or currently Dr. Pieter Johnson at the University of Colorado. 

This season monitoring was attempted at Mingo NWR (Missouri), Shiawassee NWR (Michigan), Big Oaks NWR (Indiana),  Minnesota Valley NWR (Minnesota), Squaw Creek NWR (Missouri), Patoka NWR (Indiana).  To date, Region 3 has sampled frogs at 18 refuges/wetland management districts.

From a national perspective, over 62,000 frogs from 129 refuges in 45 states have been systematically examined between 2000-2005.