Page 11 - Gateways_2017-2018 Winter

PUERTO RICAN
CRESTED TOAD

CONSERVATION Strength in
Numbers

Puerto Rico is a lush, green paradise,

but small deserts dot the island. Requiring little water,

Puerto Rican crested toads are adapted to live in

these deserts. It is in this harsh environment, though,

that introduced marine toads’ voracious appetite for

tadpoles of other species decimated crested toad PEKIN ROBIN

populations to as few as an estimated 300. Rockin’ Robins

Now the Chicago Zoological Society has joined CONSERVATION In the United States, a few telltale signs of a successful life are

the effort to bring crested toads back. For over 30 getting a job, buying a car, and starting a family. But in some Asian
cultures, including in Indonesia, a man is successful if he has a wife, a
years—as part of the world’s oldest amphibian Species house, a horse, a dagger—and a bird. The latter has created a need for large, open-
air markets specializing in the sale of songbirds. Annually, hundreds of thousands of
Survival Program (SSP) of the Association of Zoos birds, many of which are critically endangered, are sold in markets as pets.
For years, the Chicago Zoological Society has participated in breeding and
and Aquariums (AZA)—zoological institutions have reintroduction programs for many bird species. Recently, a new breeding area
behind the scenes in Tropic World at Brookfield Zoo became the home of two
worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and breeding pairs of Pekin robins, an endangered songbird of Asia.
These four birds—sent to us from the North Carolina Zoo—mark our
the Puerto Rican Department of Natural Resources commitment to ending the songbird crisis throughout Asia. Together with
the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) in North America, the European
to reintroduce crested toad tadpoles to manmade Association of Zoos and Aquaria, and Asian conservation organizations, we are
housing and will be breeding Pekin robins to ensure a genetically stable population
breeding ponds on the island. Earlier this year, more of the birds in managed care.
While conservationists have no immediate plans to release managed birds back
than a thousand tadpoles bred here at Brookfield Zoo into their native habitat, they hope to implement educational programs to change
the cultural desire to own endangered songbirds. Collaboration among partner
were flown to Puerto Rico to help stock the ponds. organizations will lead to beautiful songs in Asian rain forests once again. █

Like all amphibians, Puerto Rican crested toads BROOKFIELD ZOO | WINTER 2017/18 11

must find water to breed and lay eggs. On the island, a

change in barometric pressure signals the imminence

of the rainy season—and the mating season. Even so,

breeding ponds are few, and a main one there even

flows into a gated parking lot. Competition with an

introduced species like marine toads makes the task

even more difficult.

Conservationists hope marine toads continue to

breed in past ponds while the crested toad tadpoles,

when old enough to reproduce, head to the new,

manmade ponds.

Sadly, as of press time, Puerto Rico had been

recently devastated by hurricane damage. Reports

indicated that some release ponds in the central part

of the island had been severely impacted. There was

no information from southwestern Puerto Rico, where

the majority of the toad population lives, as power

was still out.