The gopher frog lithobates rana capito is currently petitioned for listing under the endangered species act ESA and is on the national listing work plan as a FY25 species, yet, we still do not fully…

This $132,000 project grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 4, under the Candidate Species Conservation program (CFDA 15.660), will fund genetic analysis and population modeling to help inform conservation of the gopher frog (Lithobates capito). Tangled Bank Conservation will sequence thousands of genetic loci from 1,000 existing gopher frog samples across the species' range. They will assess phylogeographic structure, identify potential distinct population segments, quantify genetic diversity in metapopulations, evaluate the potential for captive reintroductions, estimate changes in effective population sizes over time, and develop methods for genetically identifying individuals. This work aims to provide a thorough understanding of the gopher frog's taxonomic status, genetic diversity, and population trends to help unify conservation managers and quantify redundancy and resiliency across its range. The results will directly inform the species status assessment and on-the-ground management decisions for this petitioned species.

The gopher frog lithobates rana capito is currently petitioned for listing under the endangered species act ESA and is on the national listing work plan as a FY25 species, yet, we still do not fully understand the taxonomic status, or levels of genetic diversity within the species a thorough understanding of population segments, levels of genetic diversity, historical trends in effective population size, and methods to track individuals genetically across the range of gopher frogs would help unify managers acting to conserve the species, and importantly help quantify degrees of redundancy and resiliency across the range which will inform the species status assessment SSA as such, we propose to sequence thousands of loci from 1,000 already collected gopher frog samples across the species range we will assess phylogeographic structure, evaluate if any distinct population segments exist, quantify levels of genetic diversity for all metapopulations, assess the possibility of captive reintroductions across the range, estimate changes in population sizes over recent history, and test methods to identify individuals genetically our work will be crucial to the SSA and help inform management decisions on the ground for this petitioned species