7 4 Jeffrey C. Beane 



Scott of Fair Bluff, an active conservationist and founding member of the Lum- 

 ber River Basin Committee, also reported (personal communication) having 

 taken what he believed to be an adult river frog while frog gigging on the Lum- 

 ber River in the vicinity of Fair Bluff along the Columbus-Robeson County line. 

 Neither individual could recall the date of the sightings, but both estimated them 

 to have been in the early to mid-1970s. Unfortunately, neither of these sightings 

 can be verified because of the similarities between adult river frogs and some 

 bullfrogs. 



Only three responses to the many "wanted" posters distributed were 

 received, all of them false leads. Most local persons, when shown preserved tad- 

 poles, had obviously never encountered them before. 



DISCUSSION 



The results of this survey suggest that the river frog no longer occurs in 

 North Carolina. However, such a conclusive statement is difficult to make with 

 absolute confidence. The rather large amount of potential habitat present in the 

 state, and the limited scope of the current work, make it possible to envision how 

 populations of this frog could escape detection. Beane (1993b) remarked that if 

 the species still occurred in the state, it probably deserved Endangered status, but 

 recommended that it remain Special Concern since its occurrence had not been 

 verified. 



The status and range of the river frog in South Carolina are not well 

 known. Until recently, the northernmost known populations from that state were 

 from the vicinity of Poinsett State Park in Sumter County, in the Santee drainage 

 (Sanders 1984), and the species still appears common at that site (personal obser- 

 vation). In 1996, R. heckscheri was first documented from the Pee Dee drainage 

 in South Carolina by Michael E. Dorcas et al. from two sites on the "Woodbury 

 Tract," a 20,000-acre parcel of land situated at the confluence of the Great Pee 

 Dee and Little Pee Dee rivers, ca. 16 air miles SSE of Brittons Neck in Marion 

 County. River frogs were heard calling from two sites on that tract on 6 April 

 and 18 April 1996. Although no specimens were collected or seen, a recording 

 was made of three individuals calling on 18 April. The tape was verified by J. 

 Whitfield Gibbons and is on file at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory 

 (Michael E. Dorcas and Katie Distler, personal communication). The species has 

 yet to be reported from the Waccamaw drainage in either North or South Caroli- 

 na. It is possible that the lack of records from the northern Coastal Plain of South 

 Carolina reflect a lack of collecting efforts in that region rather than a genuine 

 absence, and more field work is needed in that area to determine whether any 

 currently or previously existing North Carolina populations should be regarded 

 as peripheral or disjunct. 



