Houston toad
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The Houston toad (''Anaxyrus houstonensis''), formerly ''Bufo houstonensis'', is an
endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...
of
amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...
that is
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. This
toad Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scientif ...
was discovered in the late 1940s and named in 1953. It was the first amphibian added to the United States Endangered Species Act and was labeled under endangered. The Houston toad was placed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species from 1986 to 2022, and regarded as critically endangered since then. Official estimates are that just 3,000–4,000 adult Houston Toads are left in the world. Their kind is threatened every day as they continue to suffer from a loss of habitat, extreme drought, and massive wildfires. Their typical life expectancy is at least 3 years but it may exceed this number.


Description

The female Houston toad can grow to be 52-88mm(snout to vent) when mature and are typically larger and bulkier than males. Males toads are commonly 45-70mm long. Although generally brown and speckled, their color can range from black to purplish gray, sometimes with green patches. Their underbelly can be mottled and cream colored and each frog must have at least one brown spot on their pectoral region. Tadpoles are distinguished by their heavily pigmented top 75% of their bodies. The toads typically live 2–3 years and create burrows for protection from the cold in the winter and the hot, dry conditions of the summer. These toads are
nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...
and feed on insects and small invertebrates. During the winter the toads dig themselves into loose soil and go through a period of hibernation. Toadlets are typically all black and completely develop and go through metamorphosis over the course of 60 days. They are more likely to fall victim to predation by animals and birds and desiccation from the hot dry Texas environment. These tiny toads find themselves seeing shelter under logs, leaves and a various amount of cover objects in the woods to gain protection because they are unable to burrow like adult toads. They move by making short hops. Since they cannot usually outrun their
predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
s such as
snake Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...
s,
turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...
s, large birds,
raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...
s, and other
frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...
s, the toads have developed coloration and rough skin to
camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the ...
themselves. Their skin also secretes chemicals through the parotid glands that are distasteful, and sometimes poisonous, to predators. In addition to protecting the Houston Toad from being eaten, some of these chemicals have proven useful medicines to treat heart and nervous disorders in humans.


Contribution

The Houston toad contains toxins that are vital in the pharmaceutical realm. A variety of medical treatments are derived from the active ingredients found in the Houston Toad's toxins. The Houston toad secretes valtrex online serotonin which humans use in order to treat certain neurological and heart diseases. The toad also has alkaloids which have the ability to relieve pain and may even be stronger than morphine. These toads also help stabilize the ecosystems by ensuring that the insect population is low. They are also a food source for animals such as spiders, raccoons, turtles, snakes, owls, as well as fire ants. Unfortunately, due to the low population size of the Houston toad it is difficult for scientists to be unsure of the effects that the Houston toad has on the ecosystem.


Food habits

Adult Houston toads main food source is insects and small invertebrates. Their diet consists of ground beetles as well as a variety of small toads and ants. In order to capture their prey they either sit-and-wait or they utilize active search. The toad will create a little depression in the ground using its hind legs to conduct the first method. The toad will then wait in the divet for movement in the surrounding areas and then will attack and jump at the prey when movement is detected. These depressions are left and new ones are created many times a day. Tadpoles are unable to hunt like adult Houston toads so they feed on pollen and the jelly enveloped left behind by freshly hatched tadpoles. They also tend to feed on algae which can be found on leaves. When the weather is hot in the summer or it is brittle and cold in the winter, toads can bury themselves in and under sand in order to hibernate for protection from extreme temperatures.


Reproduction

These toads are active during the daytime throughout the majority of the year. During breeding season Houston toads are active throughout the day and the night, but primarily at night. Reproduction most commonly occurs during late February but can begin as early as the end of January up until the end of June. Small isolated pools and ponds are the toad's main breeding ground. The early breeding period starts when the 24 hour period the day before has not gotten below 14 degrees Celsius. During these months, the male emits a high clear trill by distending a vocal sac on its throat, in hopes of attracting a mate ten minutes before sunset while in their burrows. After this ten minute period a male will move into a breeding area during the times of sunset to midnight where there he will then call out out another high pitched call. This call is similar to a sound of a small bell. A female will choose a male based on certain characteristics of his call. After the female toads arrive, hours after sunset, they will select their mate and will remain claps to their partner for the next 6 hours. The female will proceed to lay several thousand eggs in long single-egg strands that are fertilized externally by the male as they are laid. Each individual egg has less than one percent chance of survival. The eggs hatch within seven days and tadpoles take between 15 and 100 days to turn into little toads. The toadlets then leave the breeding pond and begin to
forage Forage is a plant material (mainly plant leaves and stems) eaten by grazing livestock. Historically, the term ''forage'' has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also used m ...
for prey such as
ant Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...
s,
beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...
s and
moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...
s. After 1 year, males reach sexual maturity, however it can take 1–2 years for females. Males generally breed for two seasons.


Geographic range

It has been determined that the toad reside in a niche area of southeastern Texas. The Houston toad has never been found north of Burleson County, south of Fort Bend County, east of Liberty County, or west of Bastrop County since its discovery in 1953. The Houston Toad today lives exclusively in pine and oak woodlands and savanna with forbs and bunchgrasses present in open areas. The Houston toad can be found in a large variety of counties such as sections of Austin, Bastrop, Burleson, Colorado, Lee, Leon, Lavaca, Milam and Robertson. All of these counties are included in the Houston toad Safe Harbor Agreement.


Habitat


General habitat

The Houston toad is generally found in areas with loose, sandy soils greater than in depth and large rolling uplands. Slow-moving or still bodies of water that last at least 30 days are needed for breeding and tadpole development. The toad's original range covered 12 counties in Texas; currently, it is often reported to occur in nine counties. However, choruses have only been actually reported in three counties since 2000, representing a seventy-five percent overall reduction in twenty years. Vegetation of its preferred habitat includes loblolly pine, post oak, blue jack oak, yaupon holly, curly threeawn, and little bluestem. They are typically found in water sources such as shallow ponds, rain pools, flooded fields, or man-made ponds which can occur for up to 30 days during the breeding, and egg/tadpole development process.


Threats

Though the largest and most immediate threat is
habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...
, the reduced toad populations are also vulnerable to
automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...
s, predators,
pesticide Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampri ...
s and
drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D.  Jiang, A.  Khan, W.  Pokam Mba, D.  Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...
. As land is being converted into land for agriculture and urbanization there is less wetland and wooded areas for the Houston toad to be able to survive in. Creating ponds out of ephemeral wetlands also significantly affects the toads because of the dispersion of the calling males. The conversions to permanent ponds creates a higher risk to predators such as snakes and fish. In addition to this, is the increase in competition and hybridization with similar species. As more ponds are created on the terrain the calling males become dispersed through a larger area making it more difficult to breed with females. Drought has also affected the toad population. During the 1950s there was a long term drought which decreased the breeding sites which increased mortality rates and created uncontrollable wildfire which lead to devastating land altering affects. The species not only lost their breeding sites but also had a loss in egg and tadpoles due to the pond evaporation. After 2009, the severe drought conditions continued to get worse and occurred throughout the central Texas region, where the Houston toad population resides. It was calculated that during peak breeding season in March 2011, central Texas received under .10 inch of rain making it the fourth driest March since 1856. In addition to the decrease in rainfall, the temperature has continued to increase and have become abnormally high. This creates a greater evaporation rate in breeding areas such as small ponds. Invasive species such as the fire ant consume the Houston toad and therefore creating a decline in their population. Houston toads can withstand


Conservation status

By 1960, the Houston toads were unable to be located and in 1970, the Houston toad was federally listed as an endangered species. It was determined that they were extirpated from the
Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
area by the 1960s, likely coincident with the severe drought of the 1950s and concurrent development of its forested habitat in that region. A population that was once in the tens of thousands was down to a mere 3,000. The largest known chorusing groups persist in
Bastrop County Bastrop County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in Central Texas and its county seat is Bastrop. As of the 2020 census, the population was 97,216. Bastrop County is included in the Austin–Round Rock, Texas, metropolita ...
, but the choruses monitored in
Bastrop State Park Bastrop State Park is a state park in Bastrop County, Texas, United States. The park was established in 1933 and consists of stands of loblolly pines mixed with post oak and junipers. History Pre-foundation The Spanish travel route known as ...
showed a dramatic decline during the mid-1990s, with little recovery of those numbers since then. Importantly, that state park is the only public land that supports consistent chorusing from year to year of the Houston toad. However, even there, the total numbers are very low. Conservation groups are working with private landowners in Bastrop County to protect and restore Houston toad habitat, but even if recovery were to be achieved in Bastrop County, this effort would not have achieved recovery for the species. Efforts toward active conservation efforts in the remaining Houston toad occupied counties and even efforts within counties from which the toad has been extirpated are needed. In spring 2008, the ''Lost Pines Habitat Conservation Plan'' was approved by the
United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
. The plan describes a management and recovery plan for the Houston toad in designated habitat in Bastrop County. In September 2011, the
Bastrop County Complex fire The Bastrop County Complex fire was a conflagration that engulfed parts of Bastrop County, Texas, in September and October 2011. The wildfire was the costliest and most destructive wildfire in Texas history and among the costliest in U.S. h ...
devastated a large part of the Houston toad's habitat. The majority of Bastrop State Park, and much of the central "core" of the occupied habitat within central Bastrop County were affected by severe and catastrophic fire intensities, with large forested areas charred by the fire. The
Lost Pines Forest The Lost Pines Forest is a belt of loblolly pines (''Pinus taeda'') in the U.S. state of Texas, near the town of Bastrop, Texas, Bastrop. The stand of pines is unique in Texas because it is a disjunct distribution, disjunct population of trees th ...
was heavily affected by the fire. The
Houston Zoo The Houston Zoo is a zoological park located within Hermann Park in Houston, Texas, United States. The zoo houses over 6,000 animals from more than 600 species. It receives 2.1 million visitors each year and is the second most visited zoo i ...
maintains a 1200 square foot captive breeding colony of the Houston toad and released over one million eggs in 2018.


Recovery


Plan

The first Houston toad Recovery Plan was developed by the Houston Toad Recovery Team with two main goals in 1984. These goals included restoring the populations to their original habitats and determining where all of the remaining populations were located. The Safe Harbor Agreement was created for the Houston toad.


Action

To aid in the survival of the toad species, the common person can plant native species which will decrease the water and pesticide uses as well as correctly disposing gardening, household and agricultural chemicals. Support can be given to the Houston Toad Safe Harbor Agreement if a citizen's land is in the potential habitat. Red fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) are typical predators of the Houston toad. This led to the fire ant being added into habitat conservation plans and safe harbor agreements. Measures were put in place in order to control the population of red-imported fire ants throughout the Houston toad distribution range, however they are not being managed.


Result

A new set of reintroduction techniques have been put into place which as increased egg production. Assisted reproductive techniques such as hormone treatments, biobanking, and in vitro fertilization have been developed by institutions to create optimal genetic diversity and egg development. In addition to this eggs were transported to release sites to give them a higher chance of survival. There has also been an increase in the wild population. Over 450 male toads were heard at the release sites and there were 42 egg strands discovered. There has also been an increase in range, as toads were found 2.5 miles from release sites.


References


Further reading

* (1984) Reproductive ecology and hybridization of the endangered Houston Toad (''Bufo houstonensis''). ''Journal of Herpetology'' ''18'': 56–72. *"The Endangered Houston Toad"
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Retrieved Nov. 17, 2005. * (2004) The history of a Nearctic colonization: Molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of the Nearctic toads (''Bufo''). ''Evolution'' ''58'': 2517–2535. *"Houston Toad"
Environmental Defense
Retrieved Nov. 17, 2005.


External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q28031354 Anaxyrus Endemic fauna of Texas Amphibians of the United States Amphibians described in 1953 ESA endangered species