A tiny Texas toad is in danger of disappearing from the Texas landscape
The endangered Houston toad
As one of the first amphibians to be listed under the Endangered Species Act, the Houston toad (Anaxyrus houstonensis) has been losing its habitat and struggling to survive for decades.
It was first mentioned on the Federal Register in August 1970, and since that time, environmentalists have put plans in place to help the toad survive.
There are different levels of protection that a species in danger may be placed under on both the state and federal level: threatened and endangered.
A plant or animal can be protected as endangered at both the state and federal levels at the same time. The level of protection provided by state and federal regulations is different, with federal laws providing stronger protections than state-level protections.
Endangered species are plants or animals in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of their habitat range. While “threatened” describes the conditions present that, without protections, could move that species into the endangered category.
Houston toad description and habitat
The Houston toad was originally spotted in the Houston area, hence the name it was given.
According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), the Houston toad is two to three and a half inches long. Its general coloration varies from light brown to gray or purplish gray, sometimes with green patches. The pale undersides often have small, dark spots. Males have a dark throat that appears bluish when expanded.
A member of the reptile family, the toad lives primarily on land. They are considered habitat specialists, requiring very specific environmental conditions to survive. TPWD explains that they are aestivate (a dormant period during hot, dry conditions similar to hibernation during cold conditions) during most of the year, burrowing into the sand for protection.
Habitat preferences include forested areas with loblolly pine, post oak, bluejack or sandjack oak, yaupon, and little bluestem.
According to Justin Grimm, environmental programs coordinator at the Brazos River Authority (BRA), “The Houston toad’s habitat range is limited to Leon, Robertson, Milam, Burleson, Lee, Bastrop, and Austin Counties which is a pretty good chunk of the middle of Little River, Mainstem Brazos, Yegua Creek, and Navasota River.”
“They rely on shallow ephemeral wetlands and seasonal depressions in the sandy Post Oak and Pine Savannah to breed, so habitat destruction by land use changes and filling in breeding grounds has had a large effect,” Grimm explains. “Open pasture and improved nonnative grasses can also limit mobility and increase predations. On the other hand, too thick of forest vegetation can limit their survivorship as well.”
Why is the Houston toad struggling to survive?
Urban development is the leading factor in its decline. Still, other contributing factors include the decrease of wetland areas, increased drought conditions, forest clearing, pollution, and the rise in wildfire activity.
According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), habitat loss for the Houston toad also comes from converting forests to agricultural pastures, feral hogs that prevent vegetation from establishing and the spread of the red fire ant.
Amphibians are important for keeping ecosystems healthy. They help move nutrients around, are part of the food chain, and can show when the environment is in trouble.
Conservation efforts
USFWS states that determining the reason for an ecosystem imbalance that is causing the number of plants or animals in a species to decrease allows natural resource agencies to develop a plan to correct the imbalance.
When the results of monitoring begin to show changes, state and federal resource agencies, along with local stakeholders, work together to identify the cause and make improvements that can aid the continued health and quality of the basin’s water supply.
Grimm explains, “We (BRA) have been partnering with TPWD on landowner workshops in Leon, Burleson, Milam, and Robertson counties that correspond with areas in our freshwater mussel CCAA zones as restoration and conservation efforts for both species are similar.”
“TPWD is the most active party in the Houston toad research and recovery,” states Grimm.
TPWD provides a list of things the average citizen can do to help with Houston toad conservation efforts:
- Protect native vegetation
- Protect existing shallow ponds
- Landscape using native plants to reduce water and pesticide use
- Properly store and dispose of household, gardening and agricultural chemicals
To see a Houston toad in person in the city it’s named for, you can visit the
Houston Zoo.
The Houston Zoo has released more than one million Houston toad eggs into the wild since 2020.
Click here for an interactive map
to see where the Houston toad has been recorded to have been found over the years.
Texas Wild was able to capture a video of the Houston toad in Bastrop State Park.
When amphibians start to disappear, it often means something could be changing within the environment. That’s why it’s important to protect them by keeping nature balanced and full of different kinds of living things.