{"id":375268,"date":"2026-07-16T09:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T09:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/375268\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T09:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T09:40:10","slug":"houston-toad-makes-comeback-after-disappearing-from-harris-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/375268\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston toad makes comeback after disappearing from Harris County"},"content":{"rendered":"

The property was one of three sites where USFWS biologists released 170,000 Houston toad eggs in April as part of a larger effort to reintroduce 3 million eggs and restore wild populations across Central Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Houston toad was among the first amphibians protected under the Endangered Species Act<\/a> when it was listed in 1970. Once found across parts of Southeast Texas<\/a>, the small brown amphibian disappeared from Harris County<\/a> by 1975 as rapid development destroyed and fragmented its habitat.<\/p>\n

The species depends on a rare combination of sandy soils, loblolly pine forests and temporary breeding ponds. After transforming from tadpoles, the toads can travel up to 3 miles through open forest before returning to ponds to breed. As development progressed, dense brush and invasive grasses fragmented that landscape, and populations became increasingly isolated.<\/p>\n

To reverse the decline, conservation partners have spent more than two decades breeding Houston toads in captivity and releasing more than 1 million eggs each year. This year’s effort is among the program’s largest yet, with 3 million eggs released at sites chosen to reconnect isolated populations.<\/p>\n

Much of that work happens on private land through the agency’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program<\/a>, which provides technical and financial assistance to restore habitat. Landowners thin dense brush, plant native grasses and wildflowers, and improve seasonal wetlands that the toads rely on for breeding.<\/p>\n

The recent sighting of a male Houston toad on one of those restored properties suggests those restoration efforts are beginning to pay off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The property was one of three sites where USFWS biologists released 170,000 Houston toad eggs in April as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1836,2299,1704,85744,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-375268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-chronnews","tag-chronscience","tag-chronstaff","tag-chrontexas","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}