The presence of tailed frogs in the Mossom Creek watershed is a testament to Mossom’s excellent water quality and quantity. Mossom Creek flows clear and cold year round. Partially spring fed, it does not dry down significantly in summer. Its largely intact forest canopy keeps the water well shaded and cool.
Pacific Tailed Frogs are provincially ‘blue listed’ because of habitat reduction. Federally, they are listed as a Species of Special Concern. They are protected under the BC Wildlife Act.
Young tailed frogs remain as tadpoles for several years. Unlike other species of frogs, these tadpoles have a large sucker surrounding their mouth and they are able to adhere to the underside of cobblestones in creeks and scrape algae to eat.
Volunteers at Mossom Creek Hatchery encounter tailed frog tadpoles regularly. When aquatic insects are sampled by rubbing rocks in the stream, one or more tailed frog tadpoles is usually collected in the net along with a great variety of stoneflies, mayflies and caddisflies. The tadpole in the photo above was discovered in one of the hatchery’s coho rearing tubs. To view a short video on tailed frogs at Mossom, visit our Mossom Creek Hatchery YouTube channel via the link on this site’s home page or go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6ZVVYpjvGA .
