Endangered leopard frog tadpoles airlifted by Vancouver Aquarium

A rare and endangered cargo is scheduled to fly into Cranbrook today — 500 tadpoles that are being shipped from the Vancouver Aquarium to the Kootenays.

The northern leopard frog is the most endangered amphibian in British Columbia, according to biologist Darren Smy.

"The main reason for that would be habitat loss, invasive species, and agriculture using pesticides would greatly affect them."

That's why the aquarium has been rearing the tadpoles for the past four years and then transplanting them to marshes around Creston and Cranbrook.

But progress is slow. After some initial success, two warm winters have set the program back and the biologists say if they're lucky 10 percent of the tadpoles released today will mature to leopard frogs.

The health of the frog populations also says a lot about the health of the environment, he says.

"All amphibians are pretty sensitive to their environment. They are kind of a canary in a coal mine. If there's issues with the environment they are the first indicator of that."

"They also eat a lot of bugs. Without frogs there would be a lot more mosquitoes around," he notes.