Texas Fauna Project

Houston Toad

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Mike Forstner, a biology professor at Texas State University, has spent over three decades studying the rare Houston toad. The toad faces many challenges, but one is an odd repercussion of rural landowners' penchant for building ponds. The proliferation of lakes disperses the toads, reducing the chance that there will be a "quorum" of male chorusing toads large enough to attract female Houston toads interested in mating and carrying on the species.