DETROIT NEWS (Michigan) 24 September 07 Detroit Zoo gives small toad a boost (Neal Rubin)
Getting Wyoming toads to act randy is more complicated than just putting a Barry White CD on the stereo, though it turns out mood music is involved.
Doing its share to preserve a drastically endangered species, the Detroit Zoo has 40 toadlets bouncing around four 10-gallon tanks in a quarantined room in its National Amphibian Conservation Center. Most of the toadlets, having grown into full-fledged toads, eventually will be FedExed to Wyoming, where they will be released into the wild to do all of the unsung valuable things amphibians do.
Becky Johnson, the zoo's associate curator of amphibians, concedes that it's harder to get people ramped up about saving toads than it is about, say, tigers. Tigers are big and beautiful, and they star in movies and cartoons.
Wyoming toads top out at about 2.2 inches, and they're generally grayish-brown with streaks of tan or white. Winnie the Pooh did not hang out with a Wyoming toad, and Tarzan never wrestled one.
"I think it's attractive," says Johnson, 37, and then she laughs at herself. Her very favorite amphibian is the Japanese giant salamander, which runs about 3 1/2 feet long and 20 pounds, and would scare you into the next neighborhood if it showed up in your yard.
So maybe she's not the best judge of amphibian attractiveness -- though she's very good at helping them attract one another. With zoo-raised Wyoming toads, it's a careful balance of hormone shots, environment, temperature and those sultry tapes of male toad sounds, played in a continuous loop in the breeding room.
Mmmm, baby. But whatever it takes to keep them alive and hopping is worth the effort, for all of us.
Wyoming toads used to be as plentiful in their home state as jackrabbits and scuffed cowboy boots. By 1994, most likely victimized by disease and habitat loss, they were extinct in the wild.
Fortunately, a handful of zoos and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stations were able to step in, so the toads have a fighting chance. But according to the latest Global Amphibian Assessment -- your copy probably got lost in the mail -- nearly 2,000 of the world's 6,000 known species of amphibians are "vulnerable," "endangered" or "critically endangered."
The Detroit Zoo takes part in multiple captive breeding programs through the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Philosophically, they're all important. As the dominant creatures on Earth, and the only ones who can record the sounds of amorous toads, we have both the ability and obligation to preserve what we're helping eradicate.
Pragmatically, says Danna Schock, we should put extra effort into amphibians.
Schock is somewhat biased. She's Johnson's boss -- the curator of amphibians -- and she adores Japanese giant salamanders, too.
Amphibians, she points out, are the link between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Furthermore, "they're an almost untapped source of pharmaceuticals for humans."
Without getting excessively technical, slime from the skin of frogs has shown promise in stopping HIV replication in cell cultures. Some dwindling newt in Florida might hold the key to curing arthritis, or something really serious like male pattern baldness.
"We're not just making noise because we think frogs are real cool," Schock says though they do, and they're right, at least when it comes to Wyoming toads.
The toadlets, having already hatched and spent a few leisurely months as tadpoles, are cute as a button and about that size -- half an inch or so. Johnson says they won't qualify as full-grown toads until they're a year old, when they can be sexed.
That has nothing to do with Barry White, but refers to identifying them as either male or female. She says the best way to tell is the color of the throat -- gray for boys, white or tan for girls.
I'm no expert, but I think I'd just play that tape and see who comes running.
Detroit Zoo gives small toad a boost