Can We Save These Rare Toads From Extinction?
Nov. 12, 2015 - At one time there was only one known Wyoming toad in the wild. Once a frequent sight on the Wyoming plains, the toad had nearly become extinct after a sharp decrease in population in the late 1970s. Habitat loss, climate change, and a fungus are all factors in its decline. The species was listed as endangered in 1984, and declared extinct in the wild not long after. But efforts to raise the animals in captivity have been successful, and a recent survey found 200 toads. It's a positive sign that the toads can sustain themselves in the wilds of Wyoming.
Transcript
Mike Dixon
Acting Project Leader
Mortensen Lake National Wildlife Refuge
The Wyoming toad is found only in the Laramie plains of Wyoming, it’s found no where else in the world and it has the maybe unfortunate distinction of being one of the most endangered amphibians in North America, and I think the most endangered amphibian in the United States.
Heidi Meador
Biological Technician
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
In 2010 I think there was one toad that we found twice that year, so I’m pretty sure there was one wild toad. And then last year I believe they found 200 in one survey, of which they do three over the summer.
Luke Linhoff
PhD Candidate
Florida International University
So we zero in and there he is right now.
Mike Dixon
And so there is a lot of effort that we’re putting into keeping this toad on the landscape, because it declined so far so fast right before our eyes.
Lizzy Mack
Wyoming Toad Project Manager
University of Wyoming
After the population decline in the 1970s we got down to about 10 wild individuals, which is when we took them into captive breeding.
The recovery plan for the Wyoming toad has been in effect since the mid-80s. We’ve got captive breeding, we attempt to maintain genetic diversity, we’ve been doing a lot of scientific research out here to determine what habitat they need, trying to improve the diet of the captive individuals.
Melanie Murphy
Assistant Professor
University of Wyoming
Because it declined before we really knew much about it, what it needed, trying to understand what was needed for recovery is limiting.
Lizzy Mack
The biggest thing that’s hitting the toads right now that we’re really trying to understand is a fungal disease called Chytridiomycosis. Which is actually devastating amphibian populations around the world.
You have to adapt, you have to be flexible, you have to learn to change your strategies, and so that’s a big part of our monitoring and recovery plan right now, is trying to understand if there’s ways to battle chytrid, which is unfortunately a brand new branch of science, we’re learning so much.
Luke Linhoff
Reintroductions are often misunderstood as far as a conservation technique, many people think it’s very easy to reintroduce an animal, that you simply take a captive-bred animal, put it back in the wild, and then it will thrive and flourish and reproduce. Often times it’s much more difficult than that, it’s extremely complicated.
Heidi Meador
One of our main objectives of course is to prepare them for being in the wild. Our 900 toadlets for one feeding per day would go through 27,000 crickets per week, and we feed them usually twice a day most every day.
Giving them as much possible diversity of food is good for several reasons. For one, it develops a bigger search image so basically anything that moves they’ll try to eat, versus only if it looks likes a cricket they’ll try to eat it.
Luke Linhoff
For the soft releases we keep them in a 1 and a half by 1 and a half meter outdoor enclosure. We try to make it as nice as possible, we want to make the transition into the wild as easy and stress free as possible, and it’s filled up with some microhabitat sites, a water bowl, there’s a nice gradient of dry to wet, they get lots of dirt they can burrow in, thick foliage to hide in. And this is very different than the captive environment in which they were raised.
Lizzy Mack
People don’t understand, ok, the world is changing and the toad didn’t cut it. And why are we working so hard to save it and spending so much money. Part of the problem is that humans are changing the landscape. And I think that we have a responsibility to try and protect those that we harm through our activities. But also, back to just biodiversity is important, it keeps us healthy, so we should have a vested interest in animals around us.
Doug Keinath
Senior Zoologist
Wyoming Natural Diversity Database
We have eliminated the immediate risk of extinction and now we have a vibrant captive population now, and we’re trying to turn that captive population in to a vibrant wild population.
