The Detroit Zoo has sent 6,855 Puerto Rican crested toad tadpoles to be released at Rio Encantado, a rainforest area in Manatí, Puerto Rico.
The shipment, announced on June 2, 2026, is part of the longest-running amphibian reintroduction program in the world. The Puerto Rican crested toad is critically endangered and found nowhere else on earth.
143,195 and counting
The Detroit Zoological Society has now raised and released 143,195 tadpoles through the program. The toads depend on healthy habitat and on temporary freshwater pools to breed, which is what makes the reintroduction work both possible and precarious.
“Each of these tadpoles represents a lot of care, coordination and hope,” said Mark Vassallo, curator of amphibians for the Detroit Zoological Society. “For our team, it’s incredibly meaningful to know that work happening here at the Detroit Zoo can help support the future of a species in Puerto Rico. Amphibians are facing serious challenges globally, and efforts like this show how zoos and the communities that support them can play an important role in protecting vulnerable wildlife.”
The release happens thousands of miles from Royal Oak, Michigan, where the tadpoles were raised. The zoo describes the work as conservation that reaches well past southeast Michigan while depending on expertise and support rooted there.
