Extinct In The Wild, Kihansi Spray Toad

The chirps of Kihansi spray toads once filled a verdant, five-acre swath of Tanzania's Kihansi Gorge.... In 2000, the construction of a hydroelectric dam in the Kihansi Gorge was predicted to dramatically change the spray toad's microhabitat in the falls. The dam provided much-needed power to Tanzania, generating a third of the country's total electrical supply. But its construction reduced the original size of the Kihansi falls to 10 percent of its former flow, drastically curtailing the mist zone in which the toads thrived. Following an agreement between WCS and the government of Tanzania, WCS scientists and Tanzanian officials collected 499 Kihansi spray toads from the gorge... The Bronx Zoo and the Toledo Zoo in Ohio shelter the only remaining populations of Kihansi spray toads, which collectively number more than 4,000 individuals." In 2012 2,000 toads returned to Kihansi and marked the first time that an extinct-in-the-wild amphibian has been returned to its native habitat.