Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny champions endangered toad, gives Brookfield Zoo's conservation efforts a boost

Chicago Tribune

2 days ago

A chatty animated amphibian starring in videos for Bad Bunny's recent album has launched the Puerto Rican crested toad — an endangered species native to the island into newfound fame, following years of quiet, collaborative conservation efforts involving Chicago's Brookfield Zoo.
'They're kind of famous now,' said Mike Masellis, Brookfield Zoo's lead animal care specialist for aquatics. While getting his oil changed at an auto shop recently, he noticed a kid in the waiting room was wearing a hoodie with an image of the toad. 'It's exciting to see people become aware of the species.'
The Puerto Rican reggaeton and rap artist directed a short film in which the crested toad — in Spanish — lends an ear to an old man reminiscing about his life on the island and wishing he'd taken more photos. In a stop-motion music video, goes clubbing as he pines over what seems to be unrequited love for a female toad; in Spotify the songs play alongside videos of the toad enjoying a cup of coffee, tending to indoor plants, doing yoga and cleaning while listening to music.
Behind the scenes at the zoo, the celebrity amphibians have their own room, the species name written on a blue door like it's backstage in a theater. Two pairs of the 30 toads recently bred and laid thousands of eggs in long, stringy, gelatinous sacs that days later morphed into tiny tadpoles.
Armed with aquarium nets and a lot of patience, staff counted 1,762 slippery tadpoles, which they then packed in bags of water and oxygen and sent aboard an overnight flight to be released into the Puerto Rican wild just in time for the rainy season. The recent efforts bring the zoo's total to almost 27,000 toads reintroduced to their native habitat since 2012.
'These are the only native toads found in Puerto Rico, but they do have a lot of frogs,' Masellis said. The island is known for the common tree frog, but its various habitats support a diversity of wildlife: 'There's rainforest, and then there's this karst region, almost desert-ish, and that's where these toads are found.'
Once thought extinct, the species is classified as globally endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List because of drought from climate change, habitat loss from residential and commercial development and competition from invasive species such as the cane toad, or .
Coastline erosion also means wave surges can reach farther inland and bring saltwater into the ponds the toads need to reproduce and lay eggs.
The only known wild population resides in the south, mostly within Guánica State Forest, and though no exact count is available, scientists estimate the population might be 2,000 to 3,000. None have been seen in the wild on the northern parts of the island since 1992. When the first Puerto Rican crested toad conservation efforts began in 1980, Brookfield Zoo was one of two U.S. institutions to receive offspring from four breeding individuals at the Puerto Rico Zoological Gardens.
'Releases in a recurring or systematized way with zoos were only standardized in 2006 — it took us a couple of decades,' said Ramón Luis Rivera Lebrón, a technical adviser in the ecology division of the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. 'We're at a disadvantage, and that's why zoos have been kind enough to constantly supply us with this new genetic material to maintain (populations).'
The species, he said, is extremely secretive, and when tadpoles become toadlets after 25 to 30 days, they take shelter in crevices or under rocks and even burrow underground where they can stay for years to protect themselves from drought and heat. So, for a while, researchers can't be sure how many make it to adulthood.
'The problem is that, until they are sexually mature, which is at 2 years old, they are not prone to visiting ponds formed after rain events,' Rivera Lebrón said. 'So, it is slow. It takes a long time to be able to see an adult individual and document its reproduction.'
The agency frees the tadpoles in natural or artificial ponds located in protected areas on public land or private property sometimes owned by conservation nonprofits such as Para la Naturaleza, whose ranch was where the 1,762 tadpoles from Brookfield Zoo were released in mid-May.
'There, we have controlled exposure, forest cover, open areas and shelter,' Rivera Lebrón said. The ranch is one of three areas identified for reintroduction on the island's northern coast, where artificial ponds receive some 15,000 to 20,000 tadpoles annually.
Inside the Puerto Rican crested toad room at the zoo, it's a sweltering 80 degrees — just how the amphibians like it for breeding season.
After doing their part, males and females are kept in separate aquariums; on top of one tank, the lid is kept in place by a couple of rocks, but staff can't remember whether they had to do that after a daring escape attempt or simply as a preventive measure. The toads are fed crickets, which are full of the nutritional value they need to thrive.
'I see this guy all day,' said Masellis as he held up a male toad, looking into its gold-colored eyes just below the distinctive crest. 'It's a nice life for them.'
After Bad Bunny's film premiered, the Puerto Rican Crested Toad Conservancy received increased donations for a new breeding center on the island, according to Rivera Lebrón. The artist's album, he said, has ignited worldwide curiosity for Puerto Rican culture, and the toad has become a point of pride.
'He managed to do what we hadn't been able to: visibilize and viralize the figure of ,' Rivera Lebrón said. 'We've just taken the opportunity to promote that it's our only Puerto Rican toad, and if we stop recognizing it, we're going to lose it.'