ATTEMPTED POPULATION REDUCTION OF THE AMERICAN BULLFROG, RANA CATESBEIANA SHAW 1802 (AMPHIBIA, ANURA, RANIDAE), AN INVASIVE AMPHIBIAN AT THE RESIGHINI RANCHERIA.

Bradford R. Norman; Resighini Rancheria, Wetlands Program; bradford.norman@resighinirancheria.com; Thomas A. Kirk

We used hand-held GPS Receivers, baited minnow traps, visual encounter surveys, air rifles, and Fyke nets, to map and collect American Bullfrogs, Rana catesbeiana, at wetland sites over the ca. 455 acres Resighini Rancheria, in Klamath, Del Norte County, California from 2018 through 2022. We were able to identify seven (N=7) distinct age-classes from collected samples. We dissected the metamorph, juvenile, sub-adult and adult frogs obtained, in order to record prey item types, and prey sizes, relative to frog size. Prey base diversity was high, and impacts on a wide array of pollinating insects was observed, including: hornets, wasps, bumble bees, dragonflies, gnats, crane flies, beetles and honey bees. We correlated our diet data with a prey item dataset from a 2004 study site in Merced County, and found additional evidence for the impacts of bullfrog predation on pollinating insects. A truncated discussion of how our data support previous studies on the predatory impacts of non-native, invasive bullfrogs at wetland eco-systems, is presented.

Invertebrate Conservation  InPerson Presentation