Toad infertility clinic. How amphibians are being saved in Texas

Toads in Texas have been given an unusual chance to survive. In laboratories in the southern part of the state, scientists are running what resembles a fertility clinic – using IVF (in vitro fertilization) techniques to save a species that has almost disappeared from the wild. It is a combination of science, passion, and cooperation with local communities, showing that saving nature today requires methods as advanced as those used to save people.

IVF for Texas toads – science in the service of nature

The program began with the goal of saving the Houston toad (Anaxyrus houstonensis), a species found only in Texas. Back in the 1960s, it was widespread, but intense urbanization and droughts almost wiped it out. The last populations survived thanks to biologists who developed a reproduction system modeled after human IVF.

How does it work? Female toads receive hormone injections, males are stimulated to produce sperm, and after the cells are combined in the lab, tadpoles are created and transferred to restored habitats after a few days. The technique requires precision – temperature, water quality, and fertilization timing must all be tightly controlled. Within a few years, scientists have managed to produce thousands of healthy individuals this way, marking a breakthrough in amphibian conservation.

Cooperation between scientists and landowners

One of the project’s foundations is cooperation with private landowners, who own as much as 95 percent of Texas’s area. Without their involvement, conservation efforts would be impossible.

As part of the Safe Harbor Agreement program, coordinated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Houston Zoo, landowners make their ponds and wetlands available as reintroduction sites for tadpoles and young toads. They receive expert support – advice on habitat management, water level control, and restoration of wetland vegetation. Through this collaboration, conservation has become a joint effort between scientists, institutions, and local communities, giving the project a cooperative rather than purely administrative character.

Fort Worth Zoo – center for breeding and reintroduction

The main partner of the initiative is the Fort Worth Zoo, which has been running a breeding program for endangered amphibians for over two decades. In 2025, the zoo announced the release of more than 690,000 eggs, tadpoles, and young toads in Bastrop County – a region where the species had nearly vanished. This record number is part of a large-scale effort to rebuild the population, carried out in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local Texas partners.

The project’s goal is to increase genetic stability and provide a safety margin for the species, which now survives in only a few local populations in the wild. Representatives of the zoo emphasize that every year of work is another step toward restoring the historical range of the Texas toad.

Toads in Texas and the global importance of the project

Although the project focuses on a single species, its significance is much broader. Over the past 20 years, the number of amphibians in the United States has dropped by more than 60 percent, and similar trends are observed worldwide. Texas has thus become a laboratory for rescue efforts that could be applied on other continents.

According to a 2023 study published in Nature, amphibians are in grave danger. Scientists estimate that nearly 41 percent of species are at risk of extinction. In many places, especially in South America and Australia, entire populations have vanished due to fungal diseases. On top of that come drying wetlands and rising temperatures. For animals that breathe through their skin, this is a death sentence. That is why every rescue effort, even one as local as this, has enormous importance.