Summary of Soft and Hard Releases, 2012–2023
摘要
Between June 2012 and February 2023, 21,474 Kihansi Spray Toads were reintroduced to the Upper, Mhalala, Lower, and Mid-Gorge Spray Wetlands in 42 separate releases. The reintroduction strategy was to release as many animals as possible in multiple reintroduction attempts in order to demographically and genetically rescue the very small reproducing populations of the Kihansi Spray Toad that were surviving up to 2 years in one or more of the spray wetlands. Although it was envisioned during the development of the reintroduction plan for the Kihansi Spray Toad that up to 5000 animals could be reintroduced annually, slightly less than 2000 animals were on average reintroduced annually due to issues related to water quality in the captive breeding facilities and the logistical challenges associated with transferring large numbers of animals between the United States and Tanzania and organizing the releases. The largest number of animals and releases occurred in the Upper Spray Wetland followed by the Mid-Gorge, Lower, and Mhalala Spray Wetlands. The most frequent age class(es) that were released were adults + subadults, followed by babies, adults + babies, adults, subadults, and adults + subadults + babies.