HOUSTON TOAD: Get to know an endangered native 
amphibian on Passport to Texas.

PTT from TPW and the Wildlife Restoration Program

Witness efforts to understand and protect the endangered 
Houston Toad this month on the Texas Parks and Wildlife 
television series. Producer, Abe Moore.

They used to be all the way from Houston to Bastrop, but now 
they're just in little pockets. So, we went out with some 
biologists to try and find some Houston toads in some ponds. 
[Frog calls] So, it's the unicorn in the woods. I mean, this is the 
thing that no one can find, and yet, at the same time, this is an 
animal that makes three thousand eggs at a time. What we 
found while we were doing the story was that the Houston Zoo 
is working with biologists by raising Houston Toads -- little 
Houston toadlets. Our role in the Houston Toad recovery plan is 
one of kind of last resort. We're starting to form a captive 
assurance colony, basically, and that is a, uh, like a failsafe 
against the extinction of the Houston Toad in the wild. While we 
were out there, I was amazed at how big these toads were. They 
were fat and happy. Some are kind of larger than what you'd 
expect. [shakes container of crickets] We've probably got about 
three or four thousand crickets in this container right here. We 
go through in the moment about six thousand a week. So that's 
on Texas Parks and Wildlife television the first or second week 
of December. :62

Thanks, Abe. Check you local listings. 

That's our show ... with support from the Wildlife 
Restoration Program ... For Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm 
Cecilia Nasti. 












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