The Los Angeles Times recently asked, “what happened to the horny toads?” Dean Williams, biology professor, was able to help answer their question. He explained that they face many threats, one of the most natural being that they are popular prey.
“These things are like popcorn in the environment,” Williams told the publication.
Williams runs the TCU Horny Toad Project, a study of the lizard in several Texas towns. They face a threat from fire ants and humans, who have both invaded their territory.
“The problem, of course, is they used to be so common, probably one of the most common lizards in Texas,” Williams said. “People for the most part just ignored them … Nobody started monitoring them. When they just started disappearing, people were like ‘Whoa! What’s happening?’”
They are now classified as a threatened species in Texas. Read the full story from the Los Angeles Times.