From producing crocodile hatchlings to housing an endangered toad spotlighted by Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, the Fort Worth Zoo is stepping into a new era of global animal conservation efforts and protections.
These efforts include conserving and releasing native Texas critters and endangered species into the wild to help grow at-risk animal populations around the world.
“There’s always some sort of breeding efforts that are going on here at the zoo behind the scenes,” said Avery Elander, Fort Worth Zoo marketing and public relations director. She added, “If we don’t step in and play an active role in conserving these species, they’ll disappear forever.”
The zoo kicked off 2025 by reflecting on 41 years of work in conserving the Puerto Rican crested toad — referred to as a sapo concho in the region its name holds — a critically endangered species.
Zoo officials started conservation efforts for the toad in 1984, officially launching its own breeding and reproduction program five years later.
The Fort Worth Zoo’s conservation efforts contribute to the Puerto Rican Crested Toad Conservancy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring the toad species population in its native habitat of Puerto Rico. (Courtesy photo | Fort Worth Zoo) Through the Puerto Rican Crested Toad Conservancy nonprofit organization, more than 830,000 tadpoles were released into their native habitat of Puerto Rico. Of that number, 107,000 tadpoles were from Fort Worth.
Diane Barber, the zoo’s senior curator of ectotherms, applauded Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny for featuring the toad in a short promotional film released earlier this year, highlighting the plight that impacts the nation’s nature and culture.
The Caribbean island’s coral reefs and marine life are largely impacted by soil erosion and pollution from runoff into the ocean. These factors, including habitat loss due to urban development, have led to the toad’s population decline.
“It’s pretty incredible to have someone like Bad Bunny, with the platform that he has, to raise awareness about this little toad and find a commonality to connect people to the toad and their natural surroundings,” Barber said in a January news release.
Flamingos ‘graduate’ to the flock
In May, a dozen lesser flamingo chicks left the zoo’s nursery to join the adult enclosure.
This species of flamingos — native to sub-Saharan Africa, India and Southern Asia — pose a challenge when it comes to breeding efforts under human care. They have a lower reproduction success rate than any other flamingo species in the United States, Fort Worth Zoo experts said.
The bird is listed as a near-threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to habitat loss.
The zoo housed its first lesser flamingo hatchling in 2002. It now leads the most successful breeding program worldwide for the species, hatching 446 chicks since 2002. As of May, 22 chicks were born in Fort Worth.
Only two other institutions in the country “hatched a combined eight (lesser flamingo) chicks” in that timeframe, according to the Fort Worth Zoo.
Endangered toads released into native Central Texas habitat
Zoo leaders did their part in honoring Endangered Species Day on May 16 with a focus on Texas.
They partnered with others to release over 690,000 endangered Houston toad eggs, tadpoles and adult toads in Bastrop County.
One of the four institutions nationwide to breed the toad under managed care, the Fort Worth Zoo partners with Texas State University and the Houston Zoo in conducting annual toad recovery and releases.
The process involves several weeks of playing matchmaker at the zoo’s Texas Native Amphibian Center to encourage adult pairs to reproduce. If successful, toad hatchings can consist of anywhere between 4,000 and 10,000 eggs. For most pond-breeding amphibians, only 5% of eggs survive to adult age.
The Houston toad was one of the first amphibians listed under the Endangered Species Act. Officials estimate that fewer than 400 adult Houston toads are left in the wild, according to the Fort Worth Zoo.
Inadequate water supply, rain or drought can cause an imbalance to the ecosystem where the toads live, contributing to population declines, officials said.
“We are working to ensure that those populations can remain stable,” Elander said.
Since the Fort Worth Zoo’s involvement in conserving the species, the institution has released more than 2 million eggs, tadpoles and adult Houston toads into the wild.
Back-to-back crocodile hatchlings
This year marks the Fort Worth Zoo’s third consecutive year of hatching gharial crocodiles. In June, it welcomed two hatchlings, the offspring of a first-time mother among the zoo’s gharial crocodiles.
“In addition to having more of these beautiful and imperiled crocodiles for the future of the species, we are able to further refine our breeding, incubation, and hatchling husbandry techniques,” Vicky Poole, the zoo’s associate curator of ectotherms at the Fort Worth Zoo, said in a July 10 news release.
The Fort Worth Zoo remains the only institution in North America to have produced multiple gharial crocodile offspring, as well as the only one to have repeated the process for multiple consecutive years, according to zoo officials.
The hatchings serve as a conservation success as low fertility among gharial crocodile eggs is common, according to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Two new gharial crocodiles were also born at the Fort Worth Zoo last year. In summer 2023, four little crocodiles hatched.
Also listed as a critically endangered species under the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the gharial crocodile faces habitat loss, pollution and river fragmentation — the disruption of a river’s natural flow.
The hatchlings will be closely monitored for growth and development, including the 2023 and 2024 hatchlings, before they are moved to an enclosure for public viewing.
Nicole Lopez is the environment reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.lopez@fortworthreport.org.
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