Threatened Chiricahua leopard frogs are back in their namesake park

Chiricahua leopard frogs are hopping again in the national park that carries their name, the Arizona Daily Star reported on November 7, 2026. On September 15, a recovery team released roughly 900 tadpoles, along with a handful of froglets and adult frogs, at sites in Bonita and Rhyolite canyons. The frogs had been missing from the park for decades. National Park Service ecologist Andy Hubbard said it was startling to see the species back where it belonged.

The team worried that recent flooding, especially in Bonita Canyon, had washed the animals out. Follow-up visits, including one in the week before the article, found otherwise. Hubbard's words were "things are looking good." He said keeping the colonies going will likely take about five years of further releases and surveys. The Arizona Game and Fish Department led the release with the Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, New Mexico wildlife staff, and the Tucson Bird Alliance. This is a reintroduction that survived its first floods, not a finished recovery.