Fort Worth Zoo making great strides to save Bad Bunny’s endangered species ‘sapo concho’
The Fort Worth Zoo says it is making great strides in its efforts to save the “sapo concho,” the critically endangered species that took the spotlight in Puerto Rican singer and rapper Bad Bunny’s recent album.
The Puerto Rican crested toad, known by its Spanish name in the album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, is the only toad species native to that country. It is fighting for survival due to habitat loss and the prevalence of an invasive species brought to Puerto Rico by the sugar cane industry a century ago.
The Fort Worth Zoo began efforts to preserve this amphibian in the 1980s. In 2019, the facility celebrated a major milestone with the birth of Olaf, the world’s first Puerto Rican crested toad hatched via in-vitro fertilization using frozen semen from the wild.
Two years later, Olaf fathered nearly 6,000 tadpoles at the zoo, the majority of which were sent to Puerto Rico and released into their natural habitat. To date, the Fort Worth Zoo has released 107,000 tadpoles at six reintroduction sites in Puerto Rico, zoo officials said in a news release.
Diane Barber, senior curator of ectotherms at the zoo, said the Puerto Rican crested toad isn’t well known and is often confused with the invasive species, known as the marine or cane toad.
“Reptile and amphibian species often become overshadowed when compared to some of the more ‘charismatic’ species like elephants and manatees, and it is difficult to compete for limited resources and support needed for their conservation,” Barber said in the release.
Barber helps manage the Puerto Rican Crested Toad Conservancy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reestablishing healthy, self-sustaining populations of this critically endangered species in the wild. The Fort Worth Zoo is one of 17 breeding facilities that partners with the organization to produce offspring, which are released annually into their natural habitat in Puerto Rico.
This tiny amphibian is an indicator species, meaning it reflects the overall condition of its environment. When an indicator species declines, other species in that ecosystem may follow.
Barber said the exposure given the Puerto Rican crested toad by Bad Bunny has provided a way for the public to see what a “sapo concho” looks like and learn about threats to its survival.
This story was originally published February 1, 2025 at 7:11 PM.
