Species Profile: Gopher Frog (Rana capito spp.) on Military Installations in the Southeastern United States
ARMY ENGINEER WATERWAYS EXPERIMENT STATION VICKSBURG MS
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The gopher frog Rana capito is a rare frog of the Southeast. Currently, three subspecies are recognized one is a candidate species for listing as Threatened or Endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the other two are former candidates now unofficially considered Species of Concern. Gopher frogs inhabit xeric upland pine communities of the Southeastern Coastal Plain from the southern half of the North Carolina coastal plain to southern Florida and westward to eastern Louisiana. The principal habitat of the gopher frog is longleaf pine-turkey oak sandhill, but it also inhabits xeric to mesic longleaf pine flatwoods, sand pine scrub, and xeric oak hammock. Gopher frogs typically breed in circular or near circular, ephemeral to semipermanent graminoid-dominated wetlands found within these communities. The gopher frog has been documented on several military installations in the Southeast This document is one of a series of Species Profiles being developed for threatened, endangered, and sensitive species inhabiting southeastern United States plant communities. The work is being conducted as part of the Department of Defense DoD Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program SERDP. The report is designed to supplement information provided in plant community management reports for major United States plant communities found on military installations.