Zoo sends 24,000 endangered tadpoles to Puerto Rico

The Puerto Rican crested toad may be critically endangered, but it’s living large in its native land, thanks to efforts by the Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens.

The zoo has announced a record-breaking year of releasing more than 24,000 crested toad tadpoles into their native habitat. The number is nearly double what the zoo has released since 2011.

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That’s when the zoo decided to help bring the toad back from the brink of extinction due to habitat loss. A herpetology team mimicked environmental breeding conditions for adult toads. The tadpole hatchlings were flown to Puerto Rico and put into ponds, where they will become toadlets within two to three weeks.

The program is one of the zoo’s nearly $2 million in conservation expenditures over the past six years … and the longest-running amphibian reintroduction of its kind, according to a zoo spokesman.