Meet the Biologist: Paige Najvar

by Emily Schaefer

Paige Najvar

USFWS

The big state of Texas is home to one of the world’s tiniest toads. Unfortunately, rapid declines in its population make it challenging for this imperiled species to survive. Fortunately, the Houston toad has Paige Najvar on its side!

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (Service) Biologist and 2015 Recovery Champion, Paige Najvar, has been working tirelessly in Texas to restore Houston toad populations. Najvar started with the Service in 1999, researching federally protected aquatic salamanders at the San Marcos Aquatic Resources Center in Texas. After completing her Master’s degree, she joined the Ecological Services Field Office in Austin, Texas and has spent the past 15 years working to recover critically endangered species—namely, the Houston toad.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, the Houston toad dominated the southeast-central region of Texas. Breeding pairs could be found in ponds throughout the region and their calls could frequently be heard in the spring. Today, however, the toad is near extinction.

This decline in Houston toad populations is the result of rapid habitat loss and recurrent drought. The toads rely on hardwood forests for migration, hibernation and feeding. In Houston, expanding urban development led to disappearing toad populations before the end of the 1980’s. Over the past decade, forests in their remaining habitat have also been damaged by wildfire events resulting from drought. These droughts triggered wildfires that devastated much of the remaining hardwood forests in 2011 and 2015, destroying the valuable habitats of the Houston toads. Additionally, these frequent drought events have negatively impacted ponds necessary for toad reproduction. Increased evaporation rates and decreased rainfall often causes the few ponds that do exist in Texas to dry out and disappear before toad eggs are ready to hatch. As a result of this habitat loss, current Houston toad populations are small and highly fragmented—making it difficult for toads to grow to adulthood and find new mates.

	Houston toad USFWS

To recover these toads, it is crucial that we restore their habitat. This restoration process is one of the greatest challenges to Houston toad recovery because the majority of the toad’s native range is on privately owned land. In order to provide sufficient habitat to support this species, it is essential for landowners to volunteer their land for research and conservation efforts. Najvar and other biologists have been working with partners and community members to conserve and survey as much land as possible in the hopes of restoring some of the toad’s native range.

Restoring this land, however, will not be enough to ensure recovery of the Houston toad. Many Houston toads are unable to find mates for breeding attempts and, even if they do, most of their offspring are unlikely to survive. In order to combat this problem, Najvar and partners have created a Headstart program. This Headstart program works to rear toads in captivity, through the most vulnerable stages of their life, and then release them into the wild. This program gives the toads a stronger chance of reaching adulthood and establishing lasting populations.

It is a challenging process, but Najvar and her team are diligent. She says, “The most rewarding aspect of working on Houston toad recovery has been the coordination and cooperation among all of the amazing people working on this species. From the surveyors and researchers at Texas State University, to the Houston Zoo and Fort Worth Zoo personnel working on captive propagation, to our other State and Federal agency partners – I just cannot say enough about their dedication to this species. Working side by side with them over the years has been tremendously inspiring.”

Najvar is looking for opportunities to help imperiled species in other parts of the country.  She says, “I hope to be able to find opportunities to take the experience I’ve gained working on the Houston toad and apply it to other species that are facing significant population declines.” Although there is real concern that the Houston toad is close to extinction, the dedicated efforts of Paige Najvar and her partners place this species in the best possible position for survival. Ultimately, the only way to save this species will be through continued meaningful cooperation between researchers and the community. Together, we can work to pull back the Houston toad from the brink of extinction.

Emily Schaefer is an intern with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Ecological Services Program.