Zoo lab riveting spot for toads

Behind closed doors at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, in a sterile laboratory of plastic tubs, is where the magic happens.

At least, it does for toads.

“I have a recording of their chirping, a little romantic music in the background for them,” said Kami Fox, hospital manager at the zoo and matchmaker for the rare toads that live in the part of the zoo that visitors don’t see.

The zoo is one of a handful of sites — and the only in Colorado — for the breeding of Wyoming toads, brought back from the brink of extinction in recent years.

The zoo also recently joined the effort to restore the population of boreal toads, whose habitat in Colorado has been reduced to two known sites.

Tuesday, the zoo will launch a yearlong program, “Year of the Frog,” to raise awareness of the plight of amphibians and highlight its own efforts to preserve them. About half of the planet’s 6,000 species of amphibians are in danger of extinction.

After a news conference Tuesday, there will be public events and information sessions, including a two-day “Leap Day” on Friday and Saturday.

While the event will be kept light — with displays of tadpoles and amphibians, puppet shows and activities for children — zoo officials say the message is serious.

Amphibians play key roles in nature by eating insects and pests and providing food for other animals. And with skin that resists viruses and limbs that regrow when severed, they have potential to aid medical research.

“We depend on amphibians so much and most people don’t realize it,” said Della Garelle, director of conservation and health at the zoo.

In the Rocky Mountains, habitat loss and pollution have driven the Wyoming toad and boreal toad nearly to extinction.

The Wyoming toad, which lives only in wetlands in that state, was thought to be extinct in the wild in the mid-1990s, wiped out by pesticide, habitat destruction, fungal disease and acid rain.

But animals remained in captivity, and since 2004 the zoo has been one of nine breeding facilities.

The nationwide program has been credited with re-establishing a population in the wild in Wyoming.

The boreal toad once lived across Colorado, but is now known to inhabit only isolated locations in Chaffee and Gunnison counties.

The zoo recently received 38 boreal toads from a hatchery in Alamosa.

Officials said they are not yet breeding them at the zoo, but they are taking part in research to hopefully stabilize their population, so, Garelle said, “you don't have all your toads in one basket.”

Officials hope, through the yearlong campaign, to get people to care about the plight of amphibians as much as the endangered mammals that get much more attention.

Can it be done?

“Probably not, but there are the eccentrics out there who do love them,” Garelle said.

“They’re not furry, so there are some people who don’t care about them.”

Zoo officials, however, will continue to emphasize what is lost if the amphibians are: “A piece of the puzzle and actually a pretty important one,” Garelle said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 476-1605 or scott.rappold@gazette.com