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201212Dec18:26

Rare toad declared extinct but saved by Zoos — restored to the wild

Infor­ma­tion
pub­lished 12 Decem­ber 2012 | mod­i­fied 12 Decem­ber 2012
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Kihansi spray toadWCS Bronx Zoo and part­ners take impor­tant rein­tro­duc­tion step in 12-​year effort: Kihansi spray toad (Nec­tophrynoides aspergi­nis) is first amphib­ian species rein­tro­duced into its native habi­tat after going extinct in the wild.

The Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Society’s Bronx Zoo, the Toledo Zoo, Tan­zan­ian gov­ern­ment, World Bank and other part­ners have rein­tro­duced 2,000 Kihansi spray toads into the Kihansi Gorge in Tan­za­nia. This is the first exam­ple of an amphib­ian species that had been declared extinct in the wild being rein­tro­duced into its native habi­tat.

The repa­tri­a­tion effort marks a major mile­stone for a species declared extinct in the wild in 2009. It is the result of a 12-​year part­ner­ship to breed the toads in cap­tiv­ity while its habi­tat was restored. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from each of the part­ner­ing organ­i­sa­tions joined Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety (WCS) for the release in the Kihansi Gorge at the end of Octo­ber: the Toledo Zoo, World Bank, Uni­ver­sity of Dar Es Salaam, Inter­na­tional Union for Con­ser­va­tion of Nature (IUCN), Tan­za­nia Wildlife Research Insti­tute, Sokoine Uni­ver­sity of Agri­cul­ture, Tan­za­nia Elec­tric Sup­ply Com­pany, and local Tan­zan­ian vil­lagers all took part.

The WCS Bronx Zoo has been work­ing with our part­ners for more than a decade to save the Kihansi spray toad with the ulti­mate goal of rein­tro­duc­ing it back into the wild. The cura­tors in the Bronx Zoo and in the Toledo Zoo — whose exper­tise allowed them to develop a suc­cess­ful hus­bandry and prop­a­ga­tion pro­gram for these unique lit­tle toads — have helped to ensure the rein­tro­duc­tion of an impor­tant liv­ing com­po­nent back into the Tan­zan­ian ecosystem.
(Jim Bre­heny, Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent and Gen­eral Direc­tor of WCS Zoos & Aquar­ium and Direc­tor of the Bronx Zoo)


The Kihansi spray toad was first dis­cov­ered in 1996, liv­ing in a five-​acre micro-​habitat cre­ated by the spray of nearby water­falls in the Kihansi Gorge. In 1999, the con­struc­tion of a hydro­elec­tric dam was pre­dicted to dra­mat­i­cally change the Kihansi spray toad’s habi­tat. The micro-​habitat where the toad lived was depen­dent on the mist cre­ated by the water­falls in the gorge. The dam, gen­er­at­ing nearly one-​fourth of Tanzania’s elec­tri­cal sup­ply, reduced the flow of the Kihansi falls by 90 per­cent, dras­ti­cally less­en­ing the mist zone.

Kihansi Spray Toads Return to the Wild, a video nar­ra­tive:



The toad was last seen in the wild in 2005, and in 2009, it was declared extinct in the wild by the IUCN. Although the ulti­mate cause for extinc­tion is still debated, it is likely a com­bi­na­tion of habi­tat change and the emer­gence of chytrid fun­gus, a vir­u­lent pathogen which is respon­si­ble for alarm­ing pop­u­la­tion crashes and extinc­tions of amphib­ian species across the world.

As the spray toad pop­u­la­tion rapidly declined, an agree­ment between WCS and the Tan­zan­ian gov­ern­ment was reached. Bronx Zoo sci­en­tists and Tan­zan­ian offi­cials col­lected an assur­ance colony of 499 Kihansi spray toads from the gorge. The small colony was brought back to the U.S. to ini­ti­ate the off-​site con­ser­va­tion pro­gram. Spe­cial micro­hab­i­tats meet­ing all the envi­ron­men­tal para­me­ters nec­es­sary for the toads to sur­vive were repli­cated in bio-​secure facil­i­ties at the Bronx Zoo and later the Toledo Zoo. Both zoos were suc­cess­ful in breed­ing.

Dr. Cristián Sam­per, WCS Pres­i­dent and CEO said: “The rein­tro­duc­tion of the Kihansi spray toad to the Kihansi Gorge is a momen­tous achieve­ment in con­ser­va­tion. It clearly shows how zoos can play an impor­tant role in con­ser­va­tion. This has been a truly global effort to save a species. This project proves that through part­ner­ship and sci­ence — wildlife can pre­vail.”

While the Toledo Zoo and Bronx Zoo have man­aged the assur­ance pop­u­la­tions of Kihansi spray toads, the Tan­zan­ian gov­ern­ment has man­aged the Lower Kihansi Envi­ron­ment Man­age­ment Project (LKEMP) in the gorge. A gravity-​fed mist­ing sys­tem was installed after con­struc­tion of the dam to arti­fi­cially repli­cate the waterfall’s spray that main­tained the toad’s ver­dant, moist five-​acre micro­hab­i­tat in the gorge.

In 2010, 100 Kihansi spray toads were returned to Tan­za­nia, where a prop­a­ga­tion cen­tre at the Uni­ver­sity of Dar es Salaam allowed for the estab­lish­ment of a third assur­ance pop­u­la­tion and prepa­ra­tions for the species’ even­tual repa­tri­a­tion. The Bronx Zoo sent Don Boyer, Cura­tor of Her­petol­ogy, and Alyssa Borek, Her­petol­ogy Keeper, to par­tic­i­pate in the rein­tro­duc­tion of the toads in the gorge.

A group of about 40 peo­ple rep­re­sent­ing all part­ner­ing organ­i­sa­tions and local vil­lages trav­elled to the gorge for the cer­e­mo­nial release,” said Boyer. “The enthu­si­asm and excite­ment was clear as every­one took their turn releas­ing a group of the toads. It was amaz­ing to see the project reach this mile­stone.”

The Bronx and the Toledo zoos will con­tinue to main­tain an assur­ance pop­u­la­tion of the spray toads and have them on exhibit for vis­i­tors to see. The released toads and habi­tat will be closely mon­i­tored to ensure that envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions remain favourable and to eval­u­ate the progress of the ani­mals. Addi­tional releases may occur peri­od­i­cally to bol­ster the num­ber of toads with the hope of hav­ing a viable, self-​sustaining pop­u­la­tion.

The Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety saves wildlife and wild places world­wide. We do so through sci­ence, global con­ser­va­tion, edu­ca­tion and the man­age­ment of the world’s largest sys­tem of urban wildlife parks, led by the flag­ship Bronx Zoo. Together these activ­i­ties change atti­tudes towards nature and help peo­ple imag­ine wildlife and humans liv­ing in har­mony. WCS is com­mit­ted to this mis­sion because it is essen­tial to the integrity of life on Earth.

(Source: WCS press release, 11.12.2012)
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Tiger range countries map

Tiger map” (CC BY 2.5) by Sander­son et al., 2006.

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