Tina Jackson puts the “her” into “herpetology.” As Colorado’s herptile coordinatorsurely one of the most singular job titles ever — she keeps an eye on Colorado’s 69 amphibian species, especially the boreal toad. Claire Martin, The Denver Post
Q: Why do you like boreal toads?
A: Boreal toads are a wonderful species. Their problem is that most people never see them. These are toads that live between 8,000 and 12,000 feet in elevation. To see them, you have to get out there, and a couple of their breeding sites are a full-day hike. They’re kind of tough animals to find.
Q: How do you keep track of them?
A: Boreal toads, and most amphibians, are notorious for being hard to track. They live high, and they’re not like frogs. They only go to ponds to breed. We started tagging them in 1998 — putting scanning tags under their skin. Last year, they found nine males originally tagged in 1998. You can’t tag boreal toads until they’re 2 or 3 years old, when you can tell whether they’re male or female, so we knew those guys are at least 12 years old.
Q: When did herpetologists notice that boreal toads were in trouble?
A: There were some researchers who started seeing declines in the 1970s, but we didn’t realize the full extent of the problem until the late 1980s, early ’90s. We know of 84 breeding sites, but only 39 of those are still active.
Q: Active, meaning the toads still breed there, and produce offspring?
A: We could go to a site and not see any adults, but we’d consider it active if there was an egg mass or tadpoles, or see one or two adults. If the one toad we saw last year is the same one this year, and he’s not able to find another toad of the opposite sex, then that population is going to go away. The researchers who first noticed the declines were visiting sites they’d seen previously, and seeing 90 to 95 percent of the sites empty.
Q: Why are the boreal toads disappearing?
A: Chytrid fungus is the big reason. This specific chytrid fungus feeds on amphibian skin. It gets inside the skin, where it reproduces and when the zoospores are ready to hatch, they come out of the amphibian skin. A toad’s skin is very thin. It’s how they absorb water, and the fungus produces scar tissue and thick skin. The ion balance in their system gets thrown off — like if you got seriously dehydrated.
Q: What about habitat?
A: The habitat is still there. It’s not like there are houses and roads and subdivisions. The problem is when chytrid fungus comes in, it knocks the population so hard that at some point, you lose every toad. And these toads are like tanks. They’re a cold-blooded animal that breeds above 8,000 feet and lays eggs as soon as the ice is off the pond. They’ll crawl over snowdrifts to get to the pond.
Q: Do you ever find boreal toads below 8,000 feet?
A: No. Those are Woodhouse’s toads. They look exactly like a boreal toad, except for two tiny little things. They’re just as cute, but they live at lower elevations.
