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Amphibian Species of Special Concern

Species accounts from Jennings and Hayes, "Amphibian and Reptile Species of Special Concern in California," 1994.

 

Salamanders
California Tiger Salamander	Ambystoma californiense
Inyo Mountains Salamander	Batrachoseps campi
Relictual Slender Salamander	Batrachoseps relicutus (=pacificus)
Breckenridge Mountain Slender Salamander	Batrachoseps sp.
Yellow-blotched Salamander	Ensatina eschscholtzi croceator
Large-blotched Salamander	Ensatina eschscholtzi klauberi
Mount Lyell Salamander	Hydromantes platycephalus
Owens Valley Web-toed Salamander	Hydromantes sp.
Del Norte Salamander	Plethodon elongatus
Southern Seep Salamander	Rhyacotriton variegatus (=olympicus)
Coast Range Newt	Taricha torosa torosa

Frogs
Tailed Frog	Ascaphus truei
Colorado River Toad	Bufo alvarius
Yosemite Toad	Bufo canorus
Arroyo Toad	Bufo microscaphus californicus
Northern Red-legged Frog	Rana aurora aurora
California Red-legged Frog	Rana aurora draytonii
Foothill Yellow-legged Frog	Rana boylii
Cascade Frog	Rana cascadae
Mountain Yellow-legged Frog	Rana muscosa
Northern Leopard Frog	Rana pipiens
Spotted Frog	Rana pretiosa
Lowland Leopard Frog	Rana yavapaiensis
Couch's Spadefoot	Scaphiopus couchii
Western Spadefoot	Scaphiopus hammondii (=Spea hammondii)

CRITERIA FOR SPECIES OF SPECIAL CONCERN DESIGNATION

The "Status" section in the species accounts indicates the state-level status recommended for a taxon (or portion of a taxon) and its justification. The collective data allowed assignment of taxa (or portions of a taxon) to one of three categories:

• Taxa for which Endangered status is justified.
• Taxa for which Threatened status is justified.
• Taxa for which Special Concern status is justified.

Determination of whether Endangered or Threatened status was justified was based on the state-level definitions in the California Fish and Game Code (see Appendix V). For determining Special Concern status, we followed the criteria indicated in Williams (1986) and Moyle et al. (1989). The primary factor leading to our recommending the state-level listing of a taxon was the presence, complexity, and imminence of existing and potential threats to the survival of that taxon. We made every attempt to evaluate threats to each taxon within a holistic framework, one as encompassing as possible with regard to the biology and ecology of each taxon. Particular attention was given to how ecologically specialized a taxon might be. Consideration of ecological specialization meant that, in general, taxa occurring in geographically restricted (rare) habitats, taxa occurring in a single habitat type, or taxa occupying a higher trophic position in food webs were considered at greater risk than taxa occurring in geographically widespread (common) habitats, taxa occurring in more than one habitat type, and taxa occupying a lower trophic position in food webs. However, taxa with life cycles tied to more than one habitat type were considered at greater risk than those whose entire life cycle could be completed within a single habitat type. Because threats to some taxa were judged to vary significantly across their geographic ranges, more than one and as many as three status listings have been recommended for some taxal. In addition to the presence, complexity, and imminence of threats to each taxon, we gave consideration, whenever possible, to three, aspects of each taxon's abundance and distribution, its endemicity, the size of its geographic range, and its abundance across its geographic range. Endemicity refers to whether the organism's known geographic range occurs entirely within California, and thus, in the absence of human-assisted translocation, is found nowhere else in the world. Beyond the fact that endemic taxa were accorded greater importance simply because of the fact that this report focuses on the political subdivision of California, such taxa were given greater attention because the recommendations we made addressed the entire known geographic range of these taxa. For similar reasons, near endemics, taxa with known geographic ranges occurring almost entirely within California, were accorded greater importance than taxa with known geographic ranges that are more widespread outside of California. Endemic or not, taxa with smaller known geographic ranges were accorded greater importance than those with larger known geographic ranges because the former were considered to be at greater risk from regional-scale catastrophic events. The local abundance of individual taxa was also considered. In particular, taxa known to consist of numerically smaller local populations (demes) or complexes of subpopulations (metapopuladons) were considered at greater risk than those known to consist of numerically larger or continuous ones.

In establishing the recommended listing of a taxon, a concerted effort was made to use criteria that might be universally applicable. Nevertheless, some criteria (e.g., the linkage of a taxon's life cycle to various habitat types) may not be universally applicable without caveats. Yet, all criteria used here could be applied unambiguously to the set of taxa reviewed; using them to evaluate other taxa in the same manner should be done cautiously.

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