Conservation in leaps and bounds: Rare toads rescued

RICHMOND — For years, the only known breeding colony of eastern spadefoot toads in Rhode Island was in the Scudder Preserve, a wooded expanse tucked away in rural Richmond.

So on the rainy morning of July 23, when U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Suzanne Paton heard the telltale mating calls of male eastern spadefoots outside her office at the Kettle Pond Visitor Center in Charlestown, she chalked it up to her imagination.

“I thought I was losing it,” she said.

As it so happens, Paton chairs the Richmond Rural Preservation Land Trust, which, with a group of partners, had just finished building two new breeding pools in the Scudder Preserve for the eastern spadefoot, a state-endangered species that is the rarest of toads in Rhode Island.

And on that July morning in her office, Paton was preparing a lecture on the toad and what’s known as “Operation Spadefoot RI,” a statewide habitat-creation project being pursued by local, state and federal agencies to prevent the species from going extinct in Rhode Island. In the midst of her work, as the rain pelted down outside, the chorus of toad song erupted.

“It was fresh in my mind. Otherwise, I might not have recognized it,” said Paton, who is not an amphibian expert.

It was one in a series of remarkable coincidences that led up to this past Saturday night, when on the banks of one of the new pools in the Scudder Preserve, Paton and others in Operation Spadefoot released 200 little toadlets that had been rescued as tadpoles from the grounds of the Kettle Pond center.

The release was a celebration of sorts, capping off a summer in which scientists from the University of Rhode Island and the state Department of Environmental Management joined up with the Richmond land trust, the Rhode Island Natural History Survey, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and other groups to step in and try to save the toad. 

It’s exceedingly uncommon to find a single eastern spadefoot in Rhode Island. Being in the presence of 200 toads at once was unusual indeed.

“Not many people get to handle these guys,” said URI ecologist Nancy Karraker, one of the leaders of the conservation project. “This is a special moment.”

The eastern spadefoot spends most of its life in the woods. During the day, it uses the sickle-shaped appendages on its hind legs made of keratin — the same material in fingernails, hooves and horns — to corkscrew backwards into the ground to escape predators and find solace from the heat. At night, it comes out from a burrow that may be several feet deep to feed on insects, spiders and worms.

The toad only breeds in the shallowest of pools at the edges of the forest or in nearby fields that get plenty of sunlight. All that sun means the pools dry out faster, but it also means their waters are warmer, which helps speed up the development process of the toad’s young. Eggs hatch in a day and tadpoles achieve metamorphosis in only three weeks — fast enough, if all goes well, to escape wood frogs and other predators.

The toad mates on one or two nights a year, coming out during heavy rainfalls and then disappearing back into the forest the next day. Conditions have to be perfect. The toads in the Scudder Preserve haven’t mated since 2014.

That’s why Paton’s discovery was so fortuitous. It was also confounding, raising questions about a species that, because of habitat loss, was believed to number only 40 or 50 individuals in Rhode Island.

“It’s very confusing, to be honest,” said state herpetologist Scott Buchanan, of the DEM. “Where else are they breeding, and how can they be detected?”

After confirming that her ears were right and that there were indeed eastern spadefoots mating in a retention pond next to the Kettle Pond center, Paton consulted with colleague Nick Ernst, who is also a biologist with Fish and Wildlife, and Buchanan.

They monitored the pond, which was quickly drying up in the summer heat. Deciding that the tadpoles would undoubtedly die if left alone, Buchanan fished out as many as he could find and took them back for safekeeping in a couple of fish tanks in his office. He then brought in Lou Perrotti, director of conservation programs at Roger Williams Park Zoo, who transferred 766 tadpoles to the zoo.

Perrotti fed the voracious tadpoles fish flakes, algae pellets and zucchini slices. Once they grew into toadlets, each no bigger than a thumbnail, the little creatures gorged on fruit flies, termites and crickets.

“The key is food,” Perrotti said. “They need a lot of food.”

Five hundred of the toads were released near the pool at the Kettle Pond center over two days last month. Perrotti is keeping 50 at the zoo to fatten up over the winter, giving them a head start on next year’s summer breeding season.

As for the 200 released Saturday night, some of them remained atop the mud while others hopped into the water and swam off with powerful kicks. They were expected to eventually head into the undergrowth, but in the meantime everyone had to be careful not to step on them in the dark.

After all the toads had been freed, there was a round of applause.

“Totally cool,” remarked Perrotti.

“Toad-ally,” added Karraker.

— akuffner@providencejournal.com / (401) 277-7457