the why we toad is found only in the
Laramie plains of Wyoming it’s found
nowhere 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 in 2010 there was one toad that
we found in the wild twice that year so
we’re pretty sure there was one wild
toad and then last year I believe they
found 200 in one survey of which they do
have three over the summer so e0n and
there he is right now and so there is a
lot of effort that we’re putting into to
keeping this toad on the landscape dumb
because it declines so far so fast right
before our eyes
after the population decline in the
1970s we got down to only about ten 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 try and
determine what habitat they need tried
to improve the diet of the captive
breeding individuals
because it declined before we really
knew much about it what it needed trying
to understand what was needed for
recovery is limiting the biggest thing
that’s hitting the toad right now that
we’re really trying to understand is a
fungal disease called Katrina o mycosis
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
Kitteridge which unfortunately is a
brand new branch of science we’re
learning so much 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 out into the wild and
then it will thrive and flourish and
reproduce oftentimes it’s much more
difficult than that it’s extremely
complicated
one of our main objectives of course is
to prepare them for being in a wild hour
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 and
for several reasons because for one it
develops a bigger search image so
basically anything that moves they’ll
try to eat versus if only if it looks
like a cricket they’ll try to eat it
for the soft releases we keep them in a
one-and-a-half by one-and-a-half meter
outdoor enclosure we try to make it as
nice as possible we want the transition
into the wild as easy and stress-free as
possible and it’s filled up with some
microhabitat sights 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
which they were raised people don’t
understand okay you know the world is
changing and the toad didn’t cut it and
you know why are we working so hard to
save it and spending so much money
harder 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 you know back to
just biodiversity is important it keeps
us healthy so we should have an invested
interest in the animals around us 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 into a
vibrant wild population
you
Laramie plains of Wyoming it’s found
nowhere 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 in 2010 there was one toad that
we found in the wild twice that year so
we’re pretty sure there was one wild
toad and then last year I believe they
found 200 in one survey of which they do
have three over the summer so e0n and
there he is right now and so there is a
lot of effort that we’re putting into to
keeping this toad on the landscape dumb
because it declines so far so fast right
before our eyes
after the population decline in the
1970s we got down to only about ten 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 try and
determine what habitat they need tried
to improve the diet of the captive
breeding individuals
because it declined before we really
knew much about it what it needed trying
to understand what was needed for
recovery is limiting the biggest thing
that’s hitting the toad right now that
we’re really trying to understand is a
fungal disease called Katrina o mycosis
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
Kitteridge which unfortunately is a
brand new branch of science we’re
learning so much 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 out into the wild and
then it will thrive and flourish and
reproduce oftentimes it’s much more
difficult than that it’s extremely
complicated
one of our main objectives of course is
to prepare them for being in a wild hour
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 and
for several reasons because for one it
develops a bigger search image so
basically anything that moves they’ll
try to eat versus if only if it looks
like a cricket they’ll try to eat it
for the soft releases we keep them in a
one-and-a-half by one-and-a-half meter
outdoor enclosure we try to make it as
nice as possible we want the transition
into the wild as easy and stress-free as
possible and it’s filled up with some
microhabitat sights 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
which they were raised people don’t
understand okay you know the world is
changing and the toad didn’t cut it and
you know why are we working so hard to
save it and spending so much money
harder 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 you know back to
just biodiversity is important it keeps
us healthy so we should have an invested
interest in the animals around us 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 into a
vibrant wild population
you
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