Deformity Levels in Wild Populations of the Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica) in Three Ecoregions of Western Canada

Deformities have been documented in many anurans, but little baseline information exists for most species. To estimate deformity levels in Wood Frogs (Rana sylvatica) in areas of relatively low disturbance, we summarized data from over 21,000 individuals examined during field studies in three distin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of herpetology Vol. 38; no. 2; pp. 283 - 287
Main Authors Eaton, Brian R, Eaves, Sara, Stevens, Cameron, Puchniak, Allison, Paszkowski, Cynthia A
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published St. Louis Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles 01.06.2004
Subjects
Amphibians
Animals
Boreal forests
CONTENTS
Ecoregions
Ectromelia
Forelimbs
Mixed forests
Morphology
Parasites
Physical trauma
Sustainable agriculture
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Summary:Deformities have been documented in many anurans, but little baseline information exists for most species. To estimate deformity levels in Wood Frogs (Rana sylvatica) in areas of relatively low disturbance, we summarized data from over 21,000 individuals examined during field studies in three distinct ecoregions of Western Canada. Deformity levels were low (<2%) in all wild populations sampled and included examples of polymelia, polyphalangy, ectromelia, and amelia. We suggest that many of the documented deformities were related to physical trauma and that dramatic deformities were recorded more often than those that were less noticeable, such as deformed digits.
ISSN:0022-1511
1937-2418
DOI:10.1670/95-03N