In Utah’s high-altitude wetlands, you can find small, bumpy creatures that emit a peanut butter-like odor when stressed. They’re boreal toads, and their populations have been declining. Here’s why they matter.
Water woes in the West and the ongoing threat of a fatal fungus mean the fate of boreal toads remains uncertain.
In past surveys, Lawrence said, staff normally recorded about a dozen toads. Once, surveyors found 20. They hoped to find some toads, yes, but also to record data that adds to a growing body of research in Utah and the Mountain West that is responsible for bolstering boreal toad numbers after dramatic losses over the last 20 years.U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considered listing the toads
Kayleigh Mullen, a biologist at Utah’s Hogle Zoo, said that amphibians, in general, are essential in food chains, since they live full and varied life stages both in land and on water, where they eat and are prey for other animals in the ecosystem. Boreal toads, in particular, spend a lot of time on land and require a large landscape to survive, spending the spring in breeding ponds, summers in foraging grounds and winters at separate hibernation sites, Mullen said.
Boreal toads typically live in wetlands between 6,500 and 11,000 feet, said Kayleigh Mullen, a biologist at Utah’s Hogle Zoo. The hope is that lessons learned through developing the Paunsaugunt Plateau assurance colony can help toad populations bounce back in other parts of the state and the West, said Kevin Wheeler, a native aquatics biologist with the wildlife division.Lawrence and Purington had been searching for toads for about two hours Aug. 31 with no luck. The sun had long set, beavers had already exited their lodge for a night of foraging and a hangnail moon hung in the pitch black sky.
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