Yosemite toads reintroduced to national park

Rare amphibians were reintroduced for the first time in the wild from captive bred population

Yosemite toads have been reintroduced to their namesake national park in California as part of recovery efforts to stymie the decline of the amphibians. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers Yosemite toads (Anaxyrus canorus) threatened due to declines from climate change related factors like wildfires. The San Francisco Zoo has been breeding the amphibians in captivity and recently sent 118 to Yosemite National Park for reintroduction. The frogs are only found in the Sierra Nevada of California, often at high elevations. “It’s the first time anyone has ever raised this species in captivity and released them to the wild,” Rochelle Stiles, field conservation manager at the San Francisco Zoo, told SFGate.

Read more at SFGate.

Header Image: A pair of Yosemite toads mating. Credit: NPS/Spencer Williams