July 22, 2011\u2014A tiny Tanzanian toad that all but disappeared after a dam reduced its waterfall habitat is being bred successfully in Syracuse, New York.
", "is_us_only": "false", "title": "\"Extinct\" Toad Thrives in Lab", "url": "http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/animals-news/kihansi-spray-toad-vin/", "country_code_deny_list": [], "allowUserEmbed": "True", "related": { "link": [ { "url": "http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/09/photogalleries/100922-extinct-lost-amphibians-frogs-salamanders-environment-science-pictures/", "name": "Pictures: \"Extinct\" Frogs, Salamander Found" }, { "url": "http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/amphibians/", "name": "Amphibian Pictures, Facts, More" } ] }, "credit": " 2011 National Geographic; video courtesy SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry", "smil": "http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/data/xml/kihansi-spray-toad-vin.smil", "country_code_allow_list": [], "HTML5src": "/video/player/media-mp4/kihansi-spray-toad-vin/mp4/variant-playlist.m3u8", "still": "http://video.nationalgeographic.com/exposure/core_media/ngphoto/image/37729_0_615x346.jpg", "transcript": "A tiny toad from Tanzania is extinct in the wild, but thriving in a lab in Syracuse, New York.
The Kihansi spray toad, which ranges from just one to one-and-a-half inches in length, is believed to have lived only under a 3,000 foot waterfall on the Kihansi River in southeastern Tanzania.
Construction of a dam upriver reduced the flow of the waterfall, and the resulting spray needed by the toads. But before the population of toads declined, about 500 were relocated.
Their numbers continued to decline until, when just 50 remained, they were stabilized enough to begin breeding successfully again.
Researchers at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry are hoping the survivors can be placed back in their natural habitat.
Chelsae Radell,\u00a0 Senior, Camden, NY
\u201cThe reason the Kihansi spray toad has gone extinct in the wild, is because of human impacts.\u00a0 They are native to a 4 hectare wetland on the side of a waterfall in Tanzania.\u00a0 So, they weren\u2019t discovered until they were starting to decline.\u00a0 The only reason they were discovered is because a hydroelectric dam was being built in the Kihansi Gorge upstream of where they\u2019re found. \u201c
Brooke Reeve, Masters candidate, Waverly, NY
\u201cBut they crashed suddenly, so a lot of people think that it could have either been that the dam released a bunch of sediments that were contaminated with pesticides and one of those was endosulfan and that\u2019s what we\u2019re testing here.\u00a0 And another idea is the chytrid fungus, which has been a problem for amphibian populations around the globe. \u201c
Chelsae Radell
\u201cThey\u2019re really unique little frogs. They\u2019re one of the few that give live birth.\u00a0 They don\u2019t have a tadpole stage.
SOUNDBITE: Brooke Reeve
\u201cThe hope is now to try and get these guys back in the wild really soon.\u00a0 And there\u2019s a good chance. They\u2019re really prolific breeders. \u201c
Chelsae Radell
\u201cThey rely so heavily on the spray. They live in the spray zone. So they require 22 hours of misting a day. And so they need to be in a wetland habitat on the side of a waterfall.
Another biologist working on the project says the toad might be the four-legged vertebrate species with the smallest range in the world. And they\u2019re hopeful they can survive in that range again.
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