The gopher frog (''Lithobates capito'') is a species of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

in the family Ranidae,

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the south-eastern United States. It primarily inhabits the threatened

sandhill A sandhill is a type of ecological community or xeric wildfire-maintained ecosystem. It is not the same as a sand dune. It features very short fire return intervals, one to five years. Without fire, sandhills undergo ecological succession and b ...

communities,

flatwoods Flatwoods, pineywoods, pine savannas and longleaf pine–wiregrass ecosystem are terms that refer to an ecological community in the southeastern coastal plain of North America. Flatwoods are an ecosystem maintained by wildfire or prescribed fir ...

, and scrub in the Atlantic

coastal plain A coastal plain (also coastal plains, coastal lowland, coastal lowlands) is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and an upland area. Formation Coastal plains can f ...

, where it is usually found near ponds.

Subspecies

Its two subspecies include the Carolina gopher frog (''L. c. capito''), and Florida gopher frog (''L. c. aesopus''). The dusky gopher frog ''(L. sevosus)'', also known as the Mississippi gopher frog, had previously been considered a subspecies, but was elevated to species status in 2001.

Range

Gopher frogs occur along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States from southern North Carolina to peninsular Florida. The gopher frog's range extends west along the Gulf Coast to the

Tombigbee River The Tombigbee River is a tributary of the Mobile River, approximately 200 mi (325 km) long, in the U.S. states of Mississippi and Alabama. Together with the Alabama, it merges to form the short Mobile River before the latter empties i ...

in Alabama. The Florida gopher frog is restricted to peninsular Florida. Today, gopher frogs' distribution is patchy, owing greatly to loss of

longleaf pine The longleaf pine (''Pinus palustris'') is a pine species native to the Southeastern United States, found along the coastal plain from East Texas to southern Virginia, extending into northern and central Florida. In this area it is also known as ...

forest communities.

Ecology

Within the flatwoods, xeric longleaf pine– turkey oak communities, sand pine scrub and oak

hammock A hammock, from Spanish , borrowed from Taíno language, Taíno and Arawak language, Arawak , is a sling made of fabric, rope, or netting, suspended between two or more points, used for swing (seat), swinging, sleeping, or Human relaxation, res ...

s they call home, gopher frogs move between mass breeding sites in ephemeral or semi-permanent wetlands and summer upland habitat. In these non-breeding times, gopher frogs frequently inhabit

gopher tortoise The gopher tortoise (''Gopherus polyphemus'') is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species is native to the southeastern United States. The gopher tortoise is seen as a keystone species because it digs burrows that provide she ...

burrows, as well as the tunnels of burrowing crayfish or rodents, or holes associated with felled longleaf pine trees as has been observed in North Carolina. Migration out of the breeding habitats typically occurs at night when it is raining, and frogs have been recorded moving up to into their summer refugia. While en route in migrations through mid-May, gopher frogs may be vulnerable to mortality associated with prescribed burns and predation.

Conservation status

Gopher frogs' primary threats include

loss of habitat Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

and

fire suppression Fire suppression may refer to: * Firefighting * Fire suppression systems * Wildfire suppression Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts depend on many factors such as the availabl ...

. It is entirely dependent upon small vernal pools for its annual reproduction.Richter, S. C., Young, J. E., Johnson, G. N., and Seigel, R. A. (2003). Stochastic variation in reproductive success of a rare frog, Rana sevosa: implications for conservation and for monitoring amphibian populations. Biological Conservation 111: 171–7. These pools in pine

are being lost to development, and to fire suppression, which allows forests to invade the natural savanna habitat. Hence, prescribed burns and habitat acquisition are considered key management strategies for its survival.

Footnotes

References

* (1983): Phylogeny and biogeography of the ''Rana pipiens'' complex: A biochemical evaluation. ''Systematic Zoology' 32: 132–143. * (1988): Systematics of the ''Rana pipiens'' complex: Puzzle and paradigm. ''Annual Review of Systematics and Ecology'' 19: 39–63. * (2005): Phylogeny of the New World true frogs (''Rana''). '' Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.'' 34(2): 299–314. PDF fulltext
* (2007) Constraints in naming parts of the Tree of Life. '' Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.'' 42: 331–338.

External links

Gopher Frogs, Burrows, and Fire: Interactions in the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem
- 2009 University of Florida Fact Sheet * {{Taxonbar, from=Q28035757 Lithobates Amphibians of North America Amphibians described in 2006 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by John Eatton Le Conte