How Do You Grow A Toad? Just Add Water
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's not easy being green, especially at Lincoln Park Zoo these days.
CBS 2's Ed Curran reports the weather played a role in the reason we have an abundance of amphibians.
How do you grow a toad? Just add water, said Dan Boehm, a Curator at Lincoln Park Zoo.
Boehm said, "Toads actually get together, mate, deposit eggs and fertilize eggs during rainstorms."
Boehm says wet weather conditions have helped lead to an abundance of toads. They don't like to lay their eggs in ponds where fish can eat them, so they lay their eggs in temporary pools that only form in the spring with rain water.
Dr. Rachel Santymire, the Director of Davee Center, studies stress in amphibians who are being hit by a fungus.
"We are studying stress and urbanization and this disease called the chytrid fungus in amphibians, because the chytrid fungus seems to be wiping out large populations of amphibians and a lot of species to go extinct," she said.
Using bleach to clean your water recreation equipment can help slow the fungus. It is tough to be a toad or frog – if the fungus doesn't get you, there are plenty of other predators eyeing the ton of new toads.
"It's going to be a bumper crop, basically, for garter snakes and a lot of other species that are going to eat these toadlets this year," said Boehm.