Spotted frogs find friends behind bars
Two inmates raise endangered amphibians to survival size
LITTLEROCK, Wash. – Kneeling on the edge of a tank the size of a child’s wading pool, Harry Greer thrust his arm into the cool water and scooped up three frogs.
Greer smiled as the tiny green-and-black spotted frogs squirmed in his hand. He bragged about how he had raised the endangered amphibians from eggs to tadpoles to juvenile frogs only steps from his prison cell.
Since spring, Greer and fellow inmate Albert Delp have spent the bulk of their days inside a small fenced-off area at the Cedar Creek Corrections Center fussing over and fattening several dozen frogs.
The two men are part of a project to bolster the dwindling population of the Oregon spotted frog, once widespread in the Puget Sound area. The effort focuses on raising the frogs until they get big enough to no longer be a snack for natural predators.
With guidance from a senior researcher from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and staff from nearby Evergreen State College, the two men started with 80 Oregon spotted frog eggs in early April. As the eggs grew into tadpoles then into frogs, the two men have been responsible for the frequent feedings and tank-water changes. They take detailed notes for state researchers.
Greer, 45, and Delp, 47, admit that they had never heard of the Oregon spotted frog – or even recall taking biology in school – but the results of their 85-cents-an-hour job has stunned researchers. Since the project started, only eight of their frogs have died – a figure significantly lower than at Woodland Park Zoo, the Oregon Zoo and Northwest Trek.
Marc P. Hayes, the Department of Fish and Wildlife senior research scientist leading the effort, said that he had doubted the success of the project, but his concerns vanished: “They have the time to address care on a level that is not possible with those other institutions. They baby those things literally night and day.”
Greer and Delp will tend to the frogs until fall, when the creatures are large enough to be released into the wild at a wetland area near Fort Lewis.