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New frog species found in New York City

"There's one population in Staten Island where all it would take is filling in one pond, and it would be gone," said Jeremy Feinberg.

By Brooks Hays
Researchers have discovered a new species of leopard frog on New York City's Staten Island. Schlesinger/New York Natural Heritage Program
Researchers have discovered a new species of leopard frog on New York City's Staten Island. Schlesinger/New York Natural Heritage Program

NEW YORK, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Ecologist Jeremy Feinberg thought he might be on the trail of a new species when he first began listening to the chorus of frog calls coming from wetlands on Staten Island. One of the calls was a bit off, unique from the others.

"Frogs have very stereotyped calls within a species, so I knew this was different," Feinberg told BBC News. "But it took me two years to find someone to partner with me on the genetics side."

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Feinberg did eventually organize a team of scientists to study the island's frog population, including Louisiana State University geneticist Catherine Newman. And lo and behold, the researchers located a new species of frog -- a type of leopard frog called Rana kauffeldi, named for the famed herpetologist Carl Kauffeld.

In addition to its unique genetic signature, the leopard frog differentiates itself from its neighbors with its distinct pattern of spots and mating call -- what the researchers describe in their new study as a "single-note unpulsed chuck." The discovery of the leopard frog is detailed in the latest issue of the journal PLOS ONE.

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Feinberg says the frogs can't be found just anywhere in New York City, not even in Central Park. They need a thoroughly wet environment, at least 10 acres in size -- river floodplains and coastal marshes.

"There's one population in Staten Island where all it would take is filling in one pond, and it would be gone," Feinberg told National Geographic.

Vulnerable or not, that a new species of frog was located inside the confines of one of the biggest cities in the world is remarkable, a testament to the hardy nature of this particular leopard frog.

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