Brief by Central Staff
Wildlife – September 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
On your next trip to the hills, maybe you should pack a jug of bleach. Not for doing laundry, but to help keep Colorado’s boreal toads from going extinct.
Boreal toads (Bufo boreas boreas) live in forested areas from 8,000 to 12,000 feet, and breed in shallow water. Their populations have been declining for about 20 years — the Colorado Division of Wildlife estimates that 85% of the state’s population has disappeared.
Thus the toads are an endangered species, and the reason for their decline is still unknown. But one major suspect is a fungus, Batrachochytrium dentrobatitis, or frog chytrid, which attacks the skin of amphibians like these toads.
This year, researchers were excited to find three new breeding sites — and dismayed to find the fungus at each site. “The fungus is being spread out there,” said Tina Jungwirth, the division’s aquatic and herptile coördinator. “We want to make sure it isn’t because of people out and about hiking.”
Thus the DOW says that “Hikers, campers, and anglers can help by disinfecting their shoes and any equipment, including nets and ATVs, that come in contact with water from wetland areas. Items should be washed down with a 10% bleach solution, and any mud that collects on surfaces or wheels of vehicles should be removed. Boots and waders should be soaked briefly in a bleach solution and allowed to dry thoroughly.”
The DOW also asked that any toad sightings be reported. The toads grow to four inches long, and have dark brown-black bumpy skin. Often there is a white or creamy stripe down the back.
And to help insure the toads’ survival, the DOW has been breeding them in captivity since 2000 at the John W. Mumma Native Aquatic Species Restoration Facility in Alamosa. There are now about 1,000 toads at the center.
