Kihansi Spray Toad

Kihansi spray toad
Conservation status
Extinct in the Wild (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Bufonidae
Genus:	Nectophrynoides
Species:	N. asperginis
Binomial name
Nectophrynoides asperginis Poynton, Howell, Clarke & Lovett, 1999

The Kihansi spray toad, Nectophrynoides asperginis, is a dwarf toad, with adults reaching no more than three quarters of an inch long. It was discovered in 1996. It was found only in the spray zone around the Kihansi and Mhalala waterfalls in the southern Udzungwa Mountains in Tanzania. It is now listed as an extinct species in the wild by the IUCN Red List^[1] due to a restricted range, habitat loss and a declining population. This was due to the Kihansi Dam being built in 1999, which reduced the amount of silt and water coming down from the waterfall into the gorge by 90 percent. This led to the spray toad's microhabitat being compromised, as it reduced the amount of water spray, which the toads were directly reliant on for oxygen. This also meant that the toad may have been more susceptible to a chytrid fungus, which was believed to have been transported by conservationists' boots^{[citation needed]}. This chytridiomycosis, which in 2003 was confirmed to be in dead animals of the species, was possibly responsible for the sudden population crash after the world's largest sprinkler system was installed in that area in August 2003. This system was installed to try and conserve the toad species from becoming extinct in the wild, but did not succeed.

Some of the toads were taken from their native gorge and placed in captivity in the late 1990s as a possible hedge against extinction, because the species had such a limited habitat. For some time, the Toledo Zoo in Ohio was the only place in the world where the Kihansi spray toad was on display to the public. But the Bronx Zoo in New York City also has several hundred Kihansi spray toads, and it opened a small exhibit in February 2010. Chattanooga Zoo also houses over 300 Kihansi spray toads and has created a small exhibit. At this time only three institutions house this species.

In August 2010, a group of 100 Kihansi Spray Toads were flown from the Bronx Zoo and Toledo Zoo to their native Tanzania. The toads remain in captivity but will be reintroduced back into the wild in the Fall of 2011.

Conservation status

Efforts are underway to reintroduce the species into the wild, using a propagation center in Dar es Salaam.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ "Species' extinction threat grows". BBC News. 3 November 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8338880.stm. Retrieved 7 May 2010. 
2. ^ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100817111833.htm
3. ^ http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0904-kihansi_spray_toad.html

• Poynton et al. (2004). Nectophrynoides asperginis. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map and justification for why this species is critically endangered

IUCN

External links

• Kihansi Spray Toad faces extinction
• Yellow toad births-new hope
• Four of Tanzania's endemic species have been pushed to the brink of extinction: Why?
• Saving Tiny African Toads
• Nectophrynoides asperginis
• Extinct toad in the wild on exhibit at WCS's Bronx zoo
• More on exhibit- Fubary 2,2010