Species → Golden Toad
Golden Toad
Incilius periglenes
What if it disappeared?
Impact LowThe golden toad and about two-thirds of the harlequin frogs (genus Atelopus) endemic to the American tropics disappeared within a single decade, a decline attributed to a pathogenic fungus whose spread is favored by global warming.
DocumentedDetail
Pounds, J.A., Bustamante, M.R., Coloma, L.A. et al. (2006). Widespread amphibian extinctions from epidemic disease driven by global warming. Nature, 439(7073), 161–167.
The fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, responsible for chytridiomycosis, proliferates under certain temperature conditions associated with global warming. The authors statistically link waves of Atelopus extinction to the years when these fungus-favoring conditions occurred at the studied sites.
The precise effect of the golden toad's own disappearance on the functioning of the Monteverde ecosystem — beyond the warning signal it represents — has not been documented as precisely as the cause of its extinction.
InsufficientDetail
Research on the golden toad has focused on the causes of its extinction (disease, climate) rather than on the ecological consequences of its disappearance for the Monteverde cloud forest itself — a gap in the literature, not a sign that the effect would be negligible.
Documentation
-
Pounds et al. (2006) — Widespread amphibian extinctions from epidemic disease driven by global warming, Nature
Accessed August 7, 2026
Last verified: August 7, 2026