Extinct in the Wild
Wyoming toad
Anaxyrus baxteri
Wyoming toad is a toad in the family Bufonidae (order Anura) — Anaxyrus baxteri, recorded as Extinct in the Wild and tied to United States.
Appearance
The Wyoming toad is dark brown, gray or green, with small dark markings on its underside. It carries small, rounded, blotchy warts on its dorsal surface as well as blurry light lines. The individual toads can be identified by the variation in their skin colors and wart patterns.
The toad can grow up to 5.6 cm (2.2 in) in length, and females grow slightly larger than males.
Range and habitat
Habitat typical characteristics may be seen to vary along the Wyoming toad's age spectrum. Studies at Mortensen Lake in Albany County show that adult Wyoming toads are attracted to habitats with greater vegetation while younger toads are more drawn to areas of lesser vegetation. Even though these habitat variations and substrate conditions varying accordingly, adults are located in areas with slightly cooler temperatures.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Toads emerge from hibernation in early May to migrate to the north shore for mating. The goal of this recovery group was to perform captive breeding and reintroduce tadpoles into the wild.
Even so, the captive breeding program has seen low reproductive output because of low ovulation and fertilization rates. Female toads were given a dose of luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRHa), that induces spawning in fish, while male toads were treated with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). To prevent extinction, a captive-breeding program began in 1989 at the Thorne Williams Unit that produced enough offspring in its first few years to supply seven zoos, and in 1998 the Saratoga National Fish Hatchery received captive-breeding stock.
In crisis
The Wyoming toad was listed as an endangered species in 1984, and listed as extinct in the wild since 1991. Nearly 46,000 offspring were produced at the Thorne Williams Unit from 1995 until 2006, when the remaining captive stock was moved to the Red Buttes Environmental Biology Laboratory south of Laramie, and then released back into the wild. The Wyoming toad, common until its sharp decrease in population in the 1970s, was officially listed as endangered in January 1984.
The toad's only known habitat was located within the Laramie Basin, 30 miles (48 km) from Laramie, Wyoming. This lake, a high-plains lake situated at 7,256 feet (2,212 m) above sea level, had maintained a healthy and reproductive population of Wyoming toads.
Chytrid fungus, collection, and wet-forest loss are the usual pressures on frogs with a high threat category.
Wyoming 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 Wyoming toad, Wikidata item Q14917274. 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.
