24,485 creatures known for ‘jewel-like' eyes flown to Puerto Rico. Here's why

Miami Herald

10-07-2025

A team in Florida individually counted over 24,000 tiny aquatic animals once believed to be extinct before packing them in boxes and sending them on their way to their native Puerto Rico.
The tadpoles of the Puerto Rican crested toad — also called the sapo concho — are expected to bolster the critically endangered population of the only toad native to the Caribbean island.
The Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens announced in a July 9 Facebook post the release of 24,485 crested toad tadpoles, bringing the total introduced into the wild by the zoo to 51,117.
'Each year, our herpetology team simulates seasonal cues like temperature drops and rainfall to help encourage natural breeding behaviors in our crested toads,' the zoo said in the post. 'Once tadpoles hatch, they're carefully transported to Puerto Rico, where U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Puerto Rican officials reintroduce them into protected wetlands.'
The toads average 2.5 to 4.5 inches and are known for a 'bony crest' on the top of their heads, as well as their 'jewel-like eyes,' owing to their gold-colored irises, according to the FWS.
The team hand counted each tadpole then placed them in specialized coolers, each containing about 1,500 tadpoles.
A consortium of zoos with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums has been working to hatch the crested toad tadpoles in captivity and release them in the wild, where they face threats such as 'habitat loss, sea level rise, invasive species and disease,' the Jacksonville Zoo says.
The situation became so dire, the species was believed to be extinct by the 1960s, according to the Puerto Rican Crested Toad Conservancy.
Efforts to raise awareness about the species include a short film from Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, in which an animated version of the tiny toad helps highlight some of the issues Puerto Rico faces.
'Bad Bunny has provided us a way to show people what a Sapo concho looks like so we can effectively teach others about the toad's rarity, threats to its survival and enable Puerto Ricans to become involved in its conservation,' said Diane Barber, Fort Worth Zoo's senior curator of ectotherms, per a news release earlier this year.
The sapo concho program is the longest ongoing reintroduction amphibian effort in the history of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the Jacksonville Zoo says.