PrintOne hundred critically endangered spray toads, bred in laboratories in the United States, were returned to Tanzania last week for the first time in 10 years. (Courtesy of The Toledo Zoo/R. Andrew Odum)
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Kihansi toads lived in the spray of a single waterfall before a major hydropower dam was built.
One hundred critically endangered spray toads, bred in laboratories in the United States, were returned to Tanzania last week for the first time in 10 years. (Courtesy of The Toledo Zoo/R. Andrew Odum)
( / )DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania and NEW YORK — When it came to a choice between a hydropower dam that would provide electricity to one-third of Tanzania and a tiny endangered toad, the dam won.
But the Kihansi toad lives on thanks to the efforts of Tanzania and two American zoos.
One hundred of the critically endangered Kihansi spray toads, bred in laboratories in the United States, were returned to Tanzania last week where they will live in the area for the first time in 10 years.
The return of the rare toads to their homeland is a significant development in an expensive and complicated conservation effort that has spanned nearly 15 years, beginning with the discovery of the toads in 1996.
Biologists found the new species while conducting an environmental impact assessment of a hydropower project, financed by the World Bank and the development agencies of Norway, Sweden, and Germany. They quickly realized that the Kihansi spray toad existed in one of the world’s smallest endemic habitats — the spray zone of a single waterfall in the Udzungwa Mountains of southern Tanzania.
About the size of nickel or a quarter, the spray toads are also unique in that they give birth to fully developed babies rather than laying eggs which then go through a tadpole stage.
Concerns about the effect of the hydropower generators on the toads were raised by biologists and international conservation groups, but the project was not stopped. The plant is expected to provide 180 megawatts of electricity to the country.
“Really that’s only enough for half a borough of New York City. In Tanzania, it’s enough to provide one third of the electricity in the entire country,” said William Newmark, a prominent American conservationist and environmental consultant to the World Bank on Kihansi.
Currently 10 percent of Tanzania’s population has access to power, though the number falls to 2 percent in rural areas.
When the hydropower plant was commissioned in 2000, it significantly reduced the toads’ habitat.
“At that stage it was obvious that if something wasn’t done fast the chances were they were going to be extinct in no time,” said Peter Hawkes, a South African biologist who was involved in the environmental impact assessment. “Just about all of the frogs that were alive were clustered around the base of the falls wherever they could get wet.”
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/africa/100819/endangered-spray-toads-return-tanzania
