I
am proud to be Tanzanian, a country that is full of amazing creatures and
natural resources like The Kihansi spray toad which was originally discovered and
described in 1998, now the
Kihansi spray toad lived in the spray wetland of the Kihansi Falls in the
Kihansi Gorge in the Udzungwa Mountains of Eastern Tanzania.
Though the species is believed extinct in the wild, Wildlife
Conservation Society has been able to breed hundreds of these diminutive frogs
in the hope they can one day be reintroduced into a restored ecosystem. Kihansi Spread Toad had one of the smallest ranges of any verbrate in the world, Its home
was limited to only about 8 acres in the Kihansi Gorge at the bottom of
large water falls.
The Kihansi Spray Toads have never been found living anywhere else in the
world. These tiny four-legged vertebrates may well have the smallest
habitat range in the world. Adult toads range in size from 1 to 1.5
inches in length and weigh only a few grams. They are yellow in color,
and usually have gold and brown spots on their backs. Their skin is thin
to the point of being translucent, and many of their internal organs
can be seen through their stomachs
The Kihansi spray toad is one of the few frogs that give birth to
fully formed young, the small toad lets can produce up to 20 babies at a
time, each of which could fit on the head of a pin. Feeding baby Kihansi
spay toad require enormous amount of small insect. It lived only in soaked herbaceous vegetation in the spray zone of the
Kihansi Falls. It breeds by internal fertilization, the females
retaining the larvae internally in the oviduct until little toad lets are
born.
The toads lived in a nearly vertical wetland created by the forceful spray that came off the pounding water. They
prefer the moist rainy remote valley environments of the highlands and
mountains of Tanzania. So amazing about The Kihansi Spread Toad, During the day seem to
prefer to sit on leaves and at night they hide on the ground under fallen trees
and coarse wood debris. The Kihansi Spread Toad is among Icon found in Tanzania,
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