The Rare Frog Surviving Next to an Amazon Warehouse

In a forgotten patch of Staten Island’s industrial sprawl, an endangered species is clinging to survival. The Atlantic Coast leopard frog, a small olive-green amphibian with coffee-colored spots and a quirky quack-like mating call, was only identified as a distinct species in 2012. Now, it has been officially listed as endangered in New York State. According to The New York Times, this is the first new endangered listing for a New York City resident species in more than two decades.

What makes the story striking is the frog’s unlikely home. These frogs live in wetlands bordering sprawling Amazon and IKEA warehouses, a landscape of concrete, trucks, and the remnants of once-vast marshes. Before the development boom, locals say “thousands and thousands” of the frogs filled the ponds. Today, their numbers have dwindled, a reminder of how fragile urban wildlife truly is.

The species faces multiple threats: loss of wetlands to development, roadkill, invasive pathogens like chytrid fungus, and rising sea levels. Less than 1 percent of New York City’s original freshwater wetlands remain, and many are privately owned. Developers have paved over much of the Staten Island marshland, though conservationists won a partial victory in 2013 when 250 acres were set aside for preservation. Still, hundreds more acres were converted into massive logistics parks.

For a frog that only travels short distances, fragmented habitats can mean the difference between thriving and disappearing. Conservationists hope that new measures—such as wildlife corridors, restored marshes, and stronger wetland protections—can give the leopard frog a fighting chance. Even Amazon and IKEA have been pressed to acknowledge their role, though activists argue far more needs to be done.

Saving these frogs is about more than one species. It’s about protecting the hidden pockets of life that still exist in our cities, and reminding ourselves that every patch of marsh, every call at dusk, is part of a greater web of life we share. Choosing to protect animals, whether in our diets or in our communities, is a step toward honoring the Earth and ensuring no species is written off as expendable.

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