Extinct in the Wild
Kihansi Spray Toad
Nectophrynoides asperginis
The Kihansi spray toad is a small toad that was endemic to Tanzania.
The toad
Kihansi Spray Toad is a toad in the family Bufonidae (order Anura) — Nectophrynoides asperginis.
Range and habitat
Prior to its extirpation, the Kihansi spray toad was endemic only to a two-hectare (5-acre) area at the base of the Kihansi River waterfall in the Udzungwa escarpment of the Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania. A number of wetlands made up the habitat of this species, all fed by spray from the Kihansi River waterfall. The species' global range covered an area of less than two hectares around the Kihansi Falls, and no additional populations have been located after searching for it around other waterfalls on the escarpment of the Udzungwa Mountains.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
An ex situ breeding program is maintained by North American zoos in the effort to reintroduce the species back into the wild. By December 2004, fewer than 70 remained in captivity, but when their exact requirements were discovered greater survival and breeding success was achieved.
The Kihansi spray toad is currently categorized as extinct in the wild by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), though the species persists in ex situ, captive breeding populations.
In crisis
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Chytrid fungus, collection, and wet-forest loss are the usual pressures on frogs with a high threat category.
Kihansi Spray Toad is Extinct in the Wild 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 Kihansi Spray Toad, Wikidata item Q2697780. 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.
