Golden toad facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Golden toad |
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| Male golden toad | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Incilius
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| Species: |
periglenes
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| Synonyms | |
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Bufo periglenes |
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The golden toad (Incilius periglenes) was a type of true toad that is now extinct. It used to live in a small, high place in Costa Rica, near the city of Monteverde. This special toad lived only in a cloud forest called an elfin forest. People also called it the Monte Verde toad or orange toad. It became a famous example of how amphibian numbers are shrinking around the world.
A scientist named Jay Savage first described this toad in 1966. The last time anyone saw a golden toad was on May 15, 1989. Since then, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has officially listed it as extinct.
Contents
About the Golden Toad
The golden toad was one of about 500 species in the Bufonidae family, known as "true toads." Male golden toads were bright orange. Their bellies sometimes had small spots. Female toads had many different colors, including black, yellow, red, green, and white. Both male and female toads had smooth skin.
Males were bright orange to attract females for mating. Females were dark, almost charcoal-colored, with yellow outlines. Females were usually bigger than males. Males were about 39 to 48 mm long, and females were about 42 to 56 mm long. Males also had longer legs and pointier noses than females.
Golden toads spent most of their lives in moist burrows. They especially stayed hidden during the dry season. We don't know how long golden toads lived. However, other toad species in the same family can live for 10 to 12 years.
Where They Lived
The golden toad lived in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in northern Costa Rica. This cloud forest area was north of the city of Monteverde. They lived in a very small area, possibly as small as 0.5 km2. This area was high up, between 1,500 and 1,620 meters above sea level. The toads seemed to prefer the lower parts of these high areas.
Reproduction and Life Cycle
The main home for golden toads was on a cold, wet ridge called Brillante. They would come out in late March or April to mate. They gathered in rainwater puddles among tree roots. This is also where they laid their eggs. In 1972, about 1500 golden toads were seen breeding there. The last time they were seen breeding was in April–May 1987.
For a few weeks in April, after the dry season, the forest became wetter. Male toads would gather in large groups near puddles. They waited for the females to arrive. Golden toads bred very quickly when it rained a lot from March to June. Males would grab onto any other toad they met to check its gender. Once a male found a female, he would hold onto her until she laid her eggs. Males would even fight each other to mate. After their short mating season, the toads went back into their burrows.
There were many more males than females. Sometimes there were ten males for every female. This often led to many males trying to mate with one pair. Each toad couple laid 200 to 400 eggs every week during the six-week mating period. Each egg was about 3 mm wide. The eggs were black and tan and were laid in small puddles, sometimes only one inch deep. Tadpoles hatched in a few days. They needed four or five more weeks to change into toads. During this time, the weather was very important. Too much rain could wash them away. Too little rain could dry up their puddles.
In 1987, an American scientist named Marty Crump watched the golden toad's mating rituals. She wrote that it was "one of the most incredible sights I've ever seen." She said they looked like "statues, dazzling jewels on the forest floor." On April 15, 1987, Crump counted 133 toads mating in one puddle. Five days later, she saw the puddles drying up. She thought this was because of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. The drying puddles left behind dry eggs covered in mold. The toads tried to mate again that May. Out of 43,500 eggs Crump found, only twenty-nine tadpoles survived.
Conservation History
Jay Savage first found the golden toad in 1964. For about 17 years after their discovery, and again in 1987, about 1500 adult toads were seen. Because the toad population was small and lived in a tiny area, a special reserve was created. This reserve was first 4 km2 and later grew to 105 km2. In 1988, only ten or eleven toads were seen. The last sighting was on May 15, 1989, when Martha Crump saw a single male toad. No golden toads have been seen since.
Between its discovery and disappearance, the golden toad was often used on posters. These posters promoted the amazing biodiversity of Costa Rica.
Why They Disappeared
The golden toad's quick disappearance was well documented. However, the exact reasons are still not fully understood. After 1989, no one has seen a golden toad for sure. At first, people thought a severe drought in 1987–1988 caused their disappearance. But now, other reasons are thought to be more likely.
The IUCN has listed several possible reasons for the toad's extinction. These include its small living area, global warming, a fungus called chytridiomycosis, and air pollution. One idea, called the El Niño hypothesis, suggests that unusual weather patterns played a big role. El Niño events can cause less rain and higher temperatures. This could have made it hard for the toads to breed and survive.
Another idea is about a fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (often called Bd). This fungus causes a disease called chytridiomycosis. This disease has caused many other amphibian species to disappear. Some scientists think that this fungus, possibly combined with climate changes, led to the golden toad's extinction. Warmer temperatures might have made the toads weaker or helped the fungus grow.
However, some studies have found no evidence of this fungus in preserved golden toad specimens. This means we still don't have a clear answer. It is very likely that the fungus played a part, but more research is needed to be certain.
Images for kids
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Male golden toad
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The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, where the golden toad used to live.
See also
