After years of frustration in trying to get approved to use radio-telemetry for tracking the seasonal movements of California red-legged frogs (CRLF), good news came from south of the border via Fauno del Noroeste. In the US, rightfully, state and federal agencies require that anyone wanting to place radios on special status species must be trained to do so by someone with appropriate skills who has already received approval from the agencies. This makes perfect sense, but the problem comes in finding someone qualified, with an active project, that is located nearby to facilitate training. For nearly two years we searched for the opportunity to get 10 hours of training but the opportunity never came. A few permitted biologists helped us with technique and equipment, but none had active projects on which we could train. Our close collaborator, Jeff Alvarez The Wildlife Project realized he knew of a Mexican biologist conducting telemetry studies in Baja California on the isolated CRLF population in the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, about 3 hours south of Ensanada. Anny Peralta-Garcia, and her husband Jorge Valdez-Villavicencio, are the principles of a non-profit called Fauna del Noroeste that focuses on research, monitoring, and restoration of Baja California’s native and endemic species. Jeff met Anny at a conference and remembered that Anny had done a post-doctoral telemetry study addressing similar research questions to ours. Anny an Jorge agreed to train us if we could come to her site in Mexico. We drove down and spent three intensive days training with them and their crew. We learned a lot from Anny and Jorge and we exchanged a lot of useful information, having much common regarding research questions.
We agreed to find a way to work together in the future: Fauna del Noroeste had big plans! Jeff and I were invited to return a few months afterward to help Anny, Jorge, and a local rancher locate new pond sites pond near a river where a small population of CRLF might be enhanced with new breeding sites. Together, Jeff and I have quite a few years of experience in pond construction and maintenance and we were able to find a couple of suitable sites, with the rancher’s approval. Anny and Jorge were awarded a National Geographic grant and they embarked on a two-year project of pond construction, maintenance, and education (hyperlink), flying us down at strategic times to lend a hand. Within a year, CRLF had found the new ponds and laid enough eggs that the Mexican government shared some with American biologists in San Diego County who are trying to restore an extirpated population there. Success breeds success. The Nature Conservancy just awarded a large grant to Fauna del Noroeste to build more ponds in a wider geographical area to expand the population. Jeff and I will be helping with construction logistics and locating optimal sites. Jeff and I feel extremely fortunate to be working with Fauno del Noroeste because sharing knowledge and skills with them has helped our own efforts here at SMRPF. Anny and Jorge work tirelessly and efficiently, making collaboration a productive pleasure, and they have become close friends.