As a group, amphibians are the most endangered animals on the face of the earth, especially susceptible to human depredation, fungal disease, and loss of their natural habitats. On the following slides, you’ll discover 10 frogs, toads, salamanders, and caecilians that have gone extinct or nearly extinct since the 1800s.
Compared to all the other frogs and toads that have gone extinct since the 1980s, there’s nothing particularly special about the golden toad, except for its striking color—and that has been enough to make it the “poster toad” for amphibian extinction. First spotted in a Costa Rican cloud forest in 1964, the golden toad was seen only intermittently since, and the last documented encounter was in 1989. The golden toad is now presumed to be extinct, doomed by climate change, fungal infection, or both.
