Flathead: The Curious Tailed Frog

The endangered Rocky Mountain Tailed Frog is smaller than your pinky finger, and pounces on prey instead of snatching them with a sticky tongue like other frogs. It’s one of the longest-lived frogs in the world, yet can’t croak or call. This remarkable amphibian is one of a dozen at-risk species in B.C.’s Flathead River Valley, a Noah’s Ark for species that have lost habitat elsewhere.

Everything about this hopscotching creature is intriguing. Tailed frogs grow very slowly, with tadpoles taking four to five years to metamorphose. The froglets take several more years to mature sexually, and adults can live for as long as 20 years. They only reach three centimetres in length. The tailed frog’s hind foot toes are flatter and wider than toes on other frogs and toads. They lack the external “ear” of other frogs, and are voiceless.

B.C. is the only place in Canada with tailed frogs; this critter’s closest living relative is 12,000 kilometers away in New Zealand. The Pacific Tailed Frog is blue-listed (a species of special concern), while the Rocky Mountain Tailed Frog is red-listed (endangered). Both species make their homes in clear, cool mountain streams, and are usually found in water with stones and boulders they can use to shelter from currents. These teeny beings stick close to stream banks since they are unable to withstand drying out as much as other frogs.

And the tail? It’s found only on males, and is a copulatory organ that fertilizes eggs internally. Unlike other frogs, which may have a remnant tail of a different colour for a short time following metamorphosis, the tailed frog’s tail is the same colour as its grainy back—usually tan or brown but sometimes green, red or black.

Tailed frogs are very susceptible to human activities such as forestry and road-building, which can damage breeding streams through disturbances and siltation, and lead to warmer water if shading trees are cut. Saving the endangered Rocky Mountain Tailed Frog is just one more reason why we need to protect the Flathead River Valley permanently.

New legislation to ban Flathead mining and energy development is a welcome first step, but the Flathead remains threatened by planned industrial logging, new road access and trophy hunting for grizzlies and other animals.

Sierra Club BC is calling on B.C. to follow the lead of Alberta and Montana and agree to a national park in the southeastern one-third of the Flathead, to fill in the missing piece of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. Waterton-Glacier is a World Heritage Site and two UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. Learn more.

We also need a Wildlife Management Area in the rest of the Flathead Valley and adjoining habitat, in keeping with recommendations made last year by a World Heritage Committee mission to the Flathead.

Notably, B.C. has no endangered species law to protect the Rocky Mountain Tailed Frog and the province's 2,000 other at-risk species.