Golden toad
| Golden toad | |
|---|---|
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| Male golden toad | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Bufonidae |
| Genus: | Incilius |
| Species: | †I. periglenes |
| Binomial name | |
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Incilius periglenes (Savage, 1966) |
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| Synonyms | |
Bufo periglenes
Cranopsis periglenes
Ollotis periglenes
The golden toad (Incilius periglenes, formerly Bufo periglenes) was a small true toad that was once abundant in a small, high-altitude region about 4 square kilometres (1.5 sq mi) in an area north of the city of Monteverde, Costa Rica. It was endemic to elfin cloud forest. Also called the Monte Verde toad, Alajuela toad and orange toad, it is commonly considered the "poster child" for the amphibian decline crisis. This toad was first described in 1966 by herpetologist Jay Savage. The last sighting of a single male golden toad was on 15 May 1989, and it has since been classified as extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The golden toad was one of more than 500 species in the family Bufonidae—the "true toads". Males were orange and sometimes slightly mottled on the belly, while females showed a greater variety of colors, including black, yellow, red, green, and white; both sexes had smooth skin. Females were typically larger than males. Body length ranged from 39 to 48 mm in males and from 42 to 56 mm in females. Males had proportionally longer limbs and longer, more acute noses than females. Females also had enlarged cranial crests above the level of the orbit (eye socket), while in males the crests were much lower.
Individuals spent the majority of their lives in moist underground burrows, in particular during the dry season. The average lifespan of the golden toad is unknown, but other amphibian species in the family Bufonidae have an average lifespan of 10–12 years.
The golden toad inhabited northern Costa Rica’s Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, in a cloud forest area north of the city of Monteverde. It was distributed over an area no more than 8 km2 and possibly as little as 0.5 km2 in extent, at an average elevation of 1,500 to 1,620 m. The species seemed to prefer the lower elevations.
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