Wyoming+Toad

media type="custom" key="3680823" By:Angelee McAlkich



Relatively common in the 1950's, the Wyoming toad experienced a sharp decline during the 1970's leading to the endangered species listing and it was believed the toad was lost to science by 1980.The Wyoming toad was later rediscovered in the wild in 1987 along the shores of Mortenson Lake,which is an alpine lake situated at 7,256 feet above sea level. By the early 1990's a captured breeding program was commensed in an attempted to save the endangered toad from extinction, but no known wild reproduction has occured since 1991. Future conservation of the Wyoming toad in the wild is heavily dependant upon eradicating the amphibian chytrid fungus, which is believed to be the greatest single threat to the species future survival. It formerly in habited flood plains, ponds, and small seepage lakes in the shortgrass communities of Laramie Basin. They frequently use abandoned pocket gopher and ground swuirrel burrows as hibernacula. The diet of this species inculdes ants, beetles, and a variety of other anthropods. Adults emerge from hibernation in May or June, after daytime maximum temperatures reach 70 degrees F. Males attract females to breeding sites by theis calls. Eggs, in gelatinous strings, are laid from mid-May to early June, and the larvae usually transform by mid-July. Wyoming Toads are short stocky animals with dry skin covered with prominent warts. The toads are brown, gray, or greenish in color with small dark blotches. Adult Wyoming Toads average 2.2 inches in length, with the females being slightly larger than the males.