Researchers released about 250 gopher frog metamorphs in a seasonal pond at the Nature Conservancy's Williams Bluffs Nature Preserve near Blakely recently. Another 800 will soon be added thanks to improved rearing methods.

The total will dwarf previous years when no more than 250 metamorphs and tadpoles were released, according to senior wildlife biologist John Jensen with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

It helped that southwest Georgia was soaked with rain this spring. Jensen said the water level of the release pond — where the frogs will hopefully return to breed — is the highest he has seen. In 2007, the project's first year, drought dried up the pond. Researchers improvised by using a carefully placed cattle trough.

Gopher frogs have been documented at fewer than 10 sites in Georgia and are statelisted as rare. Across their six-state range, 97 percent of their habitat has been lost. The stubby, nocturnal frogs spend most of their lives in gopher tortoise burrows and are found almost exclusively in the Coastal Plain's longleaf pine ecosystem.

Legged gopher frog tadpoles and metamorphs released at Williams Bluffs are marked, in part by injecting a fluorescent elastomer, or rubber, dye under their skin. Metamorph is the stage in which frogs develop lungs and legs and no longer need the water. Biologists will survey the pond in a few years for adult frogs and egg masses to gauge the project's success.

Conservation of gopher frogs and other nongame wildlife is supported by sales of Georgia's bald eagle and hummingbird license plates and donations to the Give Wildlife a Chance state income tax checkoff.