The zoo's amphibian conservation center aligns with the greater need to conserve Western toads and protect their habitat. Continued pressures of habitat loss, chytrid fungus, alternate land management, and shifting habitat conditions continue to contribute to a decline in Western toads across the Utah landscape. For these reasons, the Western toad is listed as a SGCN in the 2015-2025 UWAP and is a U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Sensitive Species. Within the new Norma W. Matheson Education Animal Center in Wild Utah, the zoo will devote a spacious room to display the zoo's robust Western toad conservation initiative to the public. At four large viewing windows, guests will see an entire amphibian hatchery/nursery in operation, and throughout the year. Zoo staff and volunteers will provide additional insight into the Western toad through informal, frequent talks at the windows. The goal for this exhibit, much as with all the zoo's conservation work, is to slow decline and eventually restore Western toads through population augmentation, data collection, and increased awareness. This new space will triple the size of the zoo's existing amphibian center and put this critical work into public viewing for the first time. According to Utah's Hogle Zoo's new strategic plan, one of the zoo's major goals is to breed and release 5,000 Western toads on the Utah landscape over the next 5 years. This is an ambitious but doable goal that the zoo is eager to implement. The new amphibian conservation room will provide staff and educators with new facilities and tools to provide toadlets with an ideal environment in which they can thrive until their release. In 2021, the zoo released 64 toadlets and kept 8 at the zoo for breeding. This past year, the program raised 8 toads from our spring breeding attempt. Funding from the Utah Watershed Restoration Initiative (UWRI) would enable the zoo to create educational opportunities to engage and encourage zoo guests in scientific research and species conservation. The colony will need to be equipped with supplies like specialized instruments for research and an initial supply of food like meal worms and crickets for the entire hatchery. Once in the Norma W. Matheson Education Animal Center, the toads must be housed with metal grid-style shelves to hold transparent tanks connected to a freshwater plumbing system of white PVC and black rubber tubing, heat lamps, pumps, and drainage. The overall health of the hatchery will benefit from these funds with the quality materials used for breeding and maintaining these animals until they can be released. The design of this room includes a large shelf on the left side of the bay of windows to give visitors opportunities to see the toads at each stage of growth and interact with conservation staff. Educational signage at the room will show the continuous cycle of caring for and breeding wildlife. The funds will create a quality space to help UHZ form a valuable connection between the process and guest action to protect native wildlife and preserve habitats. The proposed $25,000 investment will name the Utah Department of Natural Resources as a sponsor of the Utah Amphibian Conservation Room on signage for three years, and the foundation will be included in grand opening previews and marketing.

Utah's Hogle Zoo's objective is to improve its captive propagation program of the Western toad to then reintroduce and bolster their populations in the wild, supporting their wetland ecosystems and conserving this important indicator species.

The Western toad repatriation program's main goal is to keep this species off the Endangered Species List. As the biggest threats to this species continue (climate change, land development, and disease), intense monitoring plans and repatriation efforts are critical to its long-term survival in many parts of the state. The zoo's current population represents wild individuals collected from egg strands from the Paunsaugunt Plateau, Garfield County, UT, and two groups of F1 individuals from successful breeding attempts. This new center allows the zoo to continue repatriation efforts on the Paunsaugunt Plateau, as well as have the capacity to expand efforts to other populations in line with the state's new Western Toad Repatriation Plan. As available, wild egg strands will be collected from breeding sites on the Pausaugunt Plateau, and other sites as directed by the Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) and taken to the new amphibian conservation center. In the future, as the new 2025 Wildlife Action Plan (WAP) identifies SGCNs, the zoo hopes to have the capacity to further expand the program to other amphibious species, e.g. the Columbia spotted frog. Being able to dedicate space to the species in the new Wild Utah exhibit comes at an exciting time in this long-term plan. Breeding via hormone treatment was first successful in 2019 and through partnering with other zoos, UHZ is improving the process over time. Annual monitoring on the Paunsaugunt is showing overwinter survival of captive- bred toads released on to the landscape, which is a huge step forward. Over the next year or two, as these toads reach breeding age, we will hopefully see them breeding back on the Paunsaugunt from captive- bred toads. Once the zoo's team sees these self-sustaining populations, a huge marker for success in repatriation programs, UHZ can expand the framework to other Western toad populations that need this same help.

Boreal Toad Conservation Plan (Hogrefe et al. 2005), Boreal Toad Captive Management Plan for the Paunsaugunt Plateau Population, Paunsaugunt Plateau Boreal Toad Conservation Action Plan (Dixie USNF + UDWR) Utah Wildlife Action Plan (Utah Wildlife Action Plan Joint Team 2015)

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All action will be taken under the direction of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources; Native Aquatics. The zoo's conservation team works in accordance with the rigorous standards the zoo adheres to from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).

Utah's Hogle Zoo will continue to maintain its current Westen toad colony with the highest animal care standards and follow breeding protocols found to be successful. A detailed literature review is currently being conducted in-house on success of similar species looking at species, life-stage, minimum viable numbers, type of release etc. Which will continue to help guide UHZ's decisions. A 'best practices' document is also being finished this year between all institutions currently involved in the Western toad assurance colony partners. The zoo's biologist is currently part of the team creating the state's first amphibian repatriation plan alongside staff from the UDWR, BLM and USFS. All methods on breeding, translocations, and releasing of individuals put forth in this plan will be followed by UHZ. Over the next year we will be finishing building the Amphibian Conservation Center including new custom tanks, new filters, pumps, lighting and pipework per row of tanks, allowing for separate care of different populations/ species. UHZ is using a dual tank design with the flexibility to cater to both primarily terrestrial and primarily aquatic amphibian species depending on set up, custom built for amphibian rearing. UHZ's breeding methods include hibernation to mimic natural cycles and stimulate egg production and a hormone treatment adapted from the Wyoming toad breeding program, used across all partner institutions. In accordance with state policy, before release, 100% of the toadlets/ toads will be swabbed for chytrid, or 60 individuals of the group (whichever is smaller).

Annual monitoring has been carried out at the Paunsaugunt Plateau by Utah's Hogle Zoo alongside the DWR and USFS and other partner zoos for the last ten years. The zoo will continue to monitor all release sites annually.

Partners for this project include Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Wahweap warm water fish hatchery, Denver Zoo, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, Loveland Living Planet Aquarium and the US Forest Service (Dixie).

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07/01/2024

06/30/2025

2025

In May 2024, Utah's Hogle Zoo opened "Wild Utah," a new exhibit that highlights the state's native wildlife. One of the features of Wild Utah is the Norma W. Matheson Education Animal Center, where the Zoo's conservation center for native amphibians is located. This center is currently dedicated to rearing and breeding the western (boreal) toad (Anaxyrus boreas boreas), a Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) in Utah. Completion of the Amphibian Conservation Center boosted the Zoo's capacity to support recovery activities for western toads and other native amphibians. In the Norma Education Animal Center, signage highlights the status of the western toad and recovery efforts for the species, as well as encourages Zoo guests to take action to help protect western toads. The Division of Wildlife Resources is a recognized sponsor of the Amphibian Conservation Center.

Utah's Hogle Zoo contributes to species recovery by helping to propagate a key western toad population (Paunsaugunt Plateau region in southern Utah), collaborating with partner institutions to develop and promote best practices for husbandry and reproduction, and facilitating the reintroduction of captive-bred toads in collaboration with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and US Forest Service. The offspring of toads bred at the Zoo in Spring/Summer 2025, for example, were released at the Paunsaugunt Plateau on August 6. Thanks to FY25 funding from the Species Protection Account (SPA), Hogle Zoo acquired a Percival I-36VL Biological Incubator. The incubator allows the Zoo's animal care team to manage toad brumation under highly controlled conditions. SPA funding also covered critical upgrades to the Amphibian Conservation Center's electrical system, including installation of an outlet for a humidifier and plug mold strips, and supplies for toad care.

Utah's Hogle Zoo is now well positioned to support the DWR in establishing new assurance colonies for other amphibian SGCNs, such as a founder colony representing Eastern Clade populations of the western toad.