Tanzania: On the brink of extinction, toad to be reintroduced into wild after successful captive breeding
This week 100 tiny Kihansi spray toads landed in Tanzania after a flight from the United States, where they were born and bred.
This rare amphibian species is native to Tanzania, but not just anywhere in Tanzania. The natural habitat for the penny-size toads is equally small—just 5 acres of the Kihansi Gorge, to be precise, where they once thrived in the mist zone formed by the waterfalls.
The Kihansi spray toad wasn't discovered until 1996, at which point the species was already in danger. Three years later, the creation of a new hydroelectric dam would block much of water flow to the Kihansi Gorge, drastically reducing the spray of the waterfalls. The construction project rendered the toads effectively homeless, and scientists haven't seen them in the wild since 2004.
But in a bold effort to save the species from total extinction, the WCS Bronx Zoo and The Toledo Zoo have worked in close partnership with the Tanzanian government and the World Bank to rear the toads in zoos and then release them to the wild.