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Unlike most frogs and toads, Amargosa toads never make a sound unless they’re chirping their “release call” when grasped below their forelimbs. These occupants of southern Nevada’s Oasis Valley, a rare and biologically diverse wetland area, use their sticky tongues to feed along the water’s edge at night and take shelter in burrows, debris piles, and vegetation by day. But wetlands are scarce in this amphibian’s northern Mojave home, and the scores of native species they contain are increasingly threatened by human encroachment. Now more than ever, this rare, quiet amphibian needs someone to speak out on its behalf.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Not listed
PETITIONED: 2008
RANGE: A 10-mile stretch of the Amargosa River and upland springs in Oasis Valley, Nevada
THREATS: Habitat destruction, degradation, and fragmentation due to development; water extractions and diversions; flood-control activities; off-road vehicle use; nonnative predators; ground disturbance and vegetation removal; road kills; and collecting
POPULATION TREND: Long-term population trends are not known for this species, but by 1993 the population appeared to have declined dramatically. In 2006, the Nevada Division of Wildlife estimated that the total population included about 2,000 individuals.
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SAVING THE AMARGOSA TOAD
Although public concern about the Amargosa toad has increased over the past decade and voluntary conservation measures have been in place for eight years, the threats to the toad have far from diminished. In fact, disturbances from urban development, mining, grazing, water over-use, off-road vehicles, and other activities have increased in this rare toad’s range, a 10-mile stretch of habitat along the Amargosa River in the Oasis Valley — mostly on public lands.
A huge potential threat to the toad’s long-term survival and recovery came in December 2006, when the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced that it would auction off 5,740 acres of lands along the Amargosa River. If this sale occurs — or if any other public lands along the riparian corridor are sold — water extractions, flood-control activities, and development will undoubtedly increase exponentially, causing the end of many of the few remaining Amargosa populations and possibly the extinction of the species as a whole.
To protect the toad and its last remaining habitat, in February 2008 the Center and Public Employees for Responsibility petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the species as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. If the toad is listed, the Act requires the development of a recovery plan and the designation of critical habitat to ensure that the species’ last refuges don’t fall prey to destructive private interests.
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Contact:
Lisa Belenky or Rob Mrowka
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