endangered animals

The animal that we are doing our report on is the Wyoming Toad. The Wyoming Toad is a short animal that has dry, bumpy skin and is brownish, grayish in color. A full grown Wyoming Toad can reach around 2.2 inches, and the females tend to be larger then the males. The females weigh around 35 grams and the males weigh around 25 grams. The Wyoming Toad likes to live around flooded plains and short grass edges of ponds. It also will use abandoned gopher holes and squirrel burrows for hibernation. The toads diet consists of Ants, Beetles and other Arthropods. Arthropods are animal's that are invertebrates that has an exoskeleton or shell. In the mid 1950's the population of the Wyoming toad was described as abundant. The population number of the Wyoming toad dropped rapidly in the 1970's and in the 1980's the toad was a very rare site. The Wyoming toad was officially announced endangered in 1984. There are many theories as to why the Wyoming toad is endangered. They are habitat loss, pollution and acid rain, genetic defects and changes in weather patterns. The United States Fish and Wild life services started a recovery plan in 1991, which included captive breading and other things because of the captive breading program there has been 7,000 tadpoles let free in the wild. We think that if they keep doing the captive breading program that the Wyoming Toad will live on! We also think that it is important that the Wyoming toad lives on because if one animal goes extinct it might affect another.	Dutch

Written by: *Richard Contreras group*	(geschreven door)