New frog species found in South Jersey

A new frog species has been discovered living in South Jersey and elsewhere.

The Atlantic Coast leopard frog was unexpectedly identified not by sight — it is about the size of a thumb — but by sounds. It does not croak like more common frogs, but makes odd groans and cough-like sounds.

The species recently was identified in an online scientific journal by a Rutgers University-led team that included researchers from Yale and state universities in California, New York and Louisiana, along with a state Department of Environmental Protection zoologist.

Brian Zarate, a DEP zoologist, said it was a "humbling experience" to help discover the new species in a state as populated as New Jersey.

Zarate and the DEP currently participate in a two-year effort to map the potential range of the Atlantic Coast leopard frog. The amphibian has been found in marshlands along the Delaware River and Delaware Bay, Cape May Point State Park, long stretches of the state's Atlantic coastline, the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Morris County, the Meadowlands and on Staten Island.

"This discovery teaches us not to give up on certain habitats that people might dismiss," the zoologist said.

The report called the discovery both "surprising and bio-geographically significant," illustrating how "new species can occur almost anywhere." It also raised conservation concerns, since amphibians can be sensitive to disease, contaminants and environmental disturbances.

Zarate and the Division of Fish and Wildlife quietly contributed to the Rutgers research for several years. With federal and state wildlife grant money, the Endangered and Non-Game Species Program is helping to further refine the frog's habitat range.

"New Jersey has been a leader in protecting valuable wetlands resources," said David Jenkins, chief of the program.

"But this discovery of this frog literally in our backyard shows New Jersey's swamps and marshes, even those in urban and suburban landscapes, still have tremendous value for our native wildlife, and we shouldn't discount their value."

Zarate teamed in 2003 with another group focusing on protection of reptiles and amphibians while working as a biologist with the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey. The protection group heard an unfamiliar frog mating call at the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Morris County.

They captured and photographed the frog, and determined it was not the southern leopard frog, a species found widely in the Pine Barrens, or the northern leopard frog.

Four years later, the same team returned to find the strange frog was still there and in other wetlands.

Zarate posted a YouTube video after joining DEP. Jeremy Feinberg, a doctoral student at the Rutgers University School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, saw the species while working in New York to track down other reports of an unfamiliar frog call.

"Our role in the early stages was to help Feinberg's group and explore what was going on in New Jersey," Zarate explained.

DEP biologists and volunteers will search state wetlands in the spring for more evidence of the Atlantic Coast leopard frog.

"There's still a lot we don't know," Zarate noted, "and this discovery highlights the value of protecting our natural resources."