Maybe it’s because my choir rehearsals begin tonight, but I was intrigued by this story about the Houston Toad—the star soprano in the frog chorus. Here’s some information about the toad from The Dallas Morning News:
In the nightly pondside chorus, the Houston toad sings soprano. Its clear, high cry, lasting as long as 14 seconds, trills above the basso profundo grunts of the less gifted. It’s a remarkable performance. But to hear it, you’ll need to travel as far as Bastrop County.
Unfortunately habitat loss and drought have driven this toad to the brink of extinction. It hasn’t been seen in the Houston area for 50 years, and is now found only in a small area of Bastrop County, Texas. In an effort to increase the numbers of the endangered toad, 5000 baby toads, raised from eggs at a Houston Zoo nursery, were released into the wild. Texas State University, the Houston Zoo, Texas Parks and Wildlife, the Environmental Defense Fund, and private landowners are all working together save the Houston Toad.
I found a YouTube video so that I could hear the Houston toad sing. It’s ten minutes long, but I found it so inspiring to see how people are working to save this toad. It ends with a hopeful love scene—you’ll have to watch it to see what I mean!
Tags: endangered toads, Environmental Defense Fund and Houston Toad, Houston Toad, Houston Zoo and Houston Toad, Texas Parks and Wildlife and Houston Toad, video Houston Toad
Dear Betty,
Yes we agree with you, and we’re happy you came to our blog. Please send us some photographs of the habitat as well as frogs and toads. We’ll add them to our new habitat gallery.
Susan
This is so sad. I hate to see all native land being developed. There needs to be some natural land left for habitat for animals and native plants as well! Developers like to scrape the land and start ovr with non-native plants and animals! I have lots of Gulf Coast toads and Leopard frogs in my pond in Leander, Texas, USA.
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