Batches of toads are released each year.

Batches of toads are released each year. | CAIB

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma04/04/2019 18:58
TW

Last week, fifty-one "ferreret" Majorcan midwife toads were released into the wild by the government's species protection service. They had come from the zoo in Barcelona and now bring the number of ferreret communities in the Tramuntana and Llevant regions to 35; twenty of these are new.

There are nine main population centres for the toad, new locations having been added since the 1990s. Toads have typically come from Barcelona Zoo as well as from Marineland. Most important, says Eva Moragues of the protection service, is that the different populations don't mix and bring about "genetic contamination".

The government therefore has registers of the populations and of births in keeping a close eye on the toads and on preventing virus and parasites. The environment ministry has counted 29,600 larvae, which indicates a natural increase in the population and is continuing to reverse the decline in the toad population. It is still treated as being at risk of extinction.