Only 400 of these toads are left in the wild. Here’s what Fort Worth Zoo is doing to help
.png "The Fort Worth Zoo released 718,553 endangered Houston toad tadpoles and eggs into their native range.")
The Fort Worth Zoo, over the past eight weeks, has released 718,553 endangered Houston toad tadpoles and eggs into their native range on a Bastrop County site.
Since 2010, the Fort Worth Zoo has been working on Houston toad recovery in collaboration with Texas State University and the Houston Zoo. This year’s toads have produced more eggs and tadpoles in a single year than the previous years combined, since the program began. From 2010 to 2022, the total tadpoles and eggs were 665,813.
One of the first amphibians to be listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1970, there are now fewer than 400 Houston toads left in the wild. Declines in the toad’s populations suggest that the balance of its ecosystem is off. And the decline of one species signals declines in other species may follow.
The Houston toad is a “habitat specialist,” requiring very specific environmental conditions to live and breed. It needs thick, deep sandy soil, canopy cover, native grasses and water sources. Much of the forested long-leaf pine areas where the toad lives have been converted to agricultural and commercial use, reducing the toad’s habitat.
The Fort Worth Zoo is one of four facilities that breeds the species. A second Houston toad breeding facility was built this year that allowed the zoo to double its capacity for this species. The zoo also employs a reproductive physiologist who determines when the females are ready to breed to maximize egg production.
Every week over the last two months, the zoo’s Houston toad team has made breeding matches based on the physiologist’s findings, counted every egg, bagged the egg strands and taken them down to the release site. About 10 tadpoles remain at the zoo from each toad pairing to keep a healthy variety of genetics for future toad breeding.
