A Tennessee zoo's amphibian section is a lot more crowded after a critically endangered toad welcomed 20 new babies.
The Nashville Zoo announced this week that it successfully bred its Rio Pescado stubfoot toad for the first time.
"We've got some hoppy conservation news," the zoo posted on Sept. 25 alongside photos of the frogs. "For the first time in Nashville Zoo history, our herpetology team has successfully bred the critically endangered Rio Pescado stubfoot toad (Atelopus balios)."
"These toads are native to a tiny region in southwestern Ecuador and were thought to be extinct until they were rediscovered in 2011," the zoo wrote. "As a rare and critically endangered species, every birth is crucial to their survival."
The new offspring are about a few months old, Nashville Zoo herpetology supervisor Nick Hanna told The Charlotte Observer. Before the toad laid the 20 eggs, the zoo had three females and one male from the species, the newspaper reported.
While the zoo plans to continue breeding the toads, Hanna told The Observer they don't have any special protocol in place because the animals are not part of the zoo's conservation program.
"It's just a neat species that we work with here at our zoo," he said.
The Rio Pescado stubfoot toad only grows to be between 1 or 2 inches and is bright yellow with black spots.
The toad faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. Scientists once thought the species was extinct because of habitat loss and disease. During an expedition in 2011, however, a small surviving population was found in Ecuador, NBC News reported.