Critically Endangered
Houston toad
Anaxyrus houstonensis
The Houston toad, formerly Bufo houstonensis, is an endangered species of amphibian that is endemic to Texas in the United States.
Appearance
The female Houston toad can grow to be 52–88 millimetres (2.0–3.5 in) (snout to vent) when mature and are typically larger and bulkier than males. Although generally brown and speckled, their color can range from black to purplish gray, sometimes with green patches. Since they cannot usually outrun their predators such as snakes, turtles, large birds, raccoons, and other frogs, the toads have developed coloration and rough skin to camouflage themselves.
Range and habitat
The Houston toad has never been found north of Burleson County, south of Fort Bend County, east of Liberty County, or west of Bastrop County since its discovery in 1953. The Houston toad can be found in a large variety of counties such as sections of Austin, Bastrop, Burleson, Colorado, Lee, Leon, Lavaca, Milam and Robertson. The Houston toad is generally found in areas with loose, sandy soils greater than 40 in (100 cm) in depth and large rolling uplands.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
During breeding season Houston toads are active throughout the day and the night, but primarily at night. Small isolated pools and ponds are the toad's main breeding ground.
Depending on rain, breeding may occur twice in one year - in early spring and again in early summer. The early breeding period starts when the 24 hour period the day before has not gotten below 14° Celsius (57.2° Fahrenheit). During these months, the male emits a high clear trill by distending a vocal sac on its throat, in hopes of attracting a mate ten minutes before sunset while in their burrows.
In crisis
It was among the first amphibians added to the United States List of Endangered Native Fish and Wildlife and is currently protected by the Endangered Species Act of 1973 as an endangered species. The Houston toad was placed as "endangered" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species from 1986 to 2022, and has worsened to "critically endangered" since then, with fewer than 250 mature individuals believed to remain in the wild as of 2021. Their kind is threatened every day as they continue to suffer from a loss of habitat and extreme drought.
Even though the largest and most immediate threat is habitat loss (especially due to highway expansion, parking lots, and other car-centric infrastructure taking up habitat space), the reduced toad populations are also vulnerable to automobile roadkill, severe air pollution from automobiles, predators, pesticides and drought. The conversions to permanent ponds creates a higher risk to predators such as snakes and fish.
Chytrid fungus, collection, and wet-forest loss are the usual pressures on frogs with a high threat category.
Houston toad is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Houston toad, Wikidata item Q28031354. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
