Wyoming Toad
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| Wyoming Toad | ||||||||||||||
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| Bufo baxteri Porter, 1964 |
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Anaxyrus baxteri |
The Wyoming Toad (Bufo baxteri) is an extremely rare amphibian that exists only in captivity and within Mortenson Lake National Wildlife Refuge in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The Wyoming Toad was listed as an endangered species in 1984.
Relatively common in the 1950s, the Wyoming Toad experienced a sharp decline during the 1970s leading to the endangered species listing and it was believed the toad was lost to science by 1980. The Wyoming Toad was later rediscovered in the wild in 1987 along the shores of Mortenson Lake, which is an alpine lake situated at 7,256 feet (2,211 m) above sea level. The toad is historically found only in the Laramie Basin within 30 miles (50 km) of Laramie, Wyoming. By the early 1990s a captured breeding program was commenced in an attempt to save the endangered toad from extinction, but no known wild reproduction has occurred since 1991.
Future conservation of the Wyoming Toad in the wild is heavily dependent upon eradicating the amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis), which is believed to be the greatest single threat to the species' future survival.
[edit] References
- Pauly, G. B., D. M. Hillis, and D. C. Cannatella. (2004) The history of a Nearctic colonization: Molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of the Nearctic toads (Bufo). Evolution 58: 2517–2535.
- Hammerson (2004). Bufo baxteri. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 10 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map and a brief justification of why this species is listed as extinct in the wild
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