Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) is a tiny little chorus frog found across most of the eastern U.S. and Canada. Tan with a dark cross on its back they are often less than an inch in length. Making home to a number of wetland environments they prefer semi-wooded areas and must lay their eggs in an aquatic location. Feeding on a variety of invertebrates they can often be found near lights in warm summer months where all sorts of bugs gather. Capable of surviving temperatures as low as -8 dC they hibernate under logs or beneath lose bark. One of the greatest sounds of spring, their call, signals warm weather is here!
Female Kihansi Spray Toad with her young toadlet. Courtesy of the Wildlife Conservation Society. Photo: Julie Larsen Maher
Recently more than 2,000 Kihansi spray toads (Nectophrynoides asperginis), an amphibian species that was declared extinct in the wild in 2009, made the long journey from Toledo, Ohio, and Bronx, New York, to Africa. They were returning to their native habitat in the Kihansi Gorge in Tanzania.
These tiny toads are unique in that they live in a micro-habitat—it was created by the spray of nearby waterfalls in the Kihansi Gorge and covers only five acres. This is the smallest range of any known vertebrate species.
In 1990, a hydroelectric dam was constructed that reduced the spray of the falls by 90 percent and so lessened the mist zone that the toads needed for survival. The toad population was also devastated by the chytrid fungus, which has devastated amphibian populations worldwide.
As the toad populations were declining, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Bronx Zoo, and later the Toledo Zoo, in agreement with the Tanzanian government (and with the help of numerous organizations—see below), removed 500 toads from the gorge and brought them to the US. Special microhabitats were created for the toads and both zoos were able to breed them successfully.
Now over 2,400 toads have been successfully released in the wild. Before being released, scientists from the University of Dar es Salaam and Sokoine University of Agriculture certified the area as being free from chytrid fungus.
This is the first time that an amphibian that was extinct in the wild has been returned to its native habitat.
Organizations involved in reintroducing the kihansi toad to the wild include the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo, the Toledo Zoo, Tanzanian government, World Bank, University of Dar Es Salaam, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Wildlife Division and Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania Electric Supply Company, and local Tanzanian villagers all took part.
When was your organization founded?
Coyote Peterson Brands LLC, Swamp Monsters and Brave Wilderness were all founded in 2010. Please tell us a bit about your mission and goals
Coyote Peterson Brands was founded to develop a wide variety of film and television projects (Swamp Monsters and Brave Wilderness are the first) to be hosted by Coyote Peterson. Our goal is to use media platforms as a vehicle and outlet to help conservation messages be spread across the globe. Ultimately we hope to inspire and educate- through adventure- the next generation of explorers and conservationists.
What is your educational background and what lead to creating this organization?
I have been fascinated with nature since I was probably 4 years old. This prompted me to educate myself as much as I could about animals and outdoor/wilderness survival. I went to The Ohio State University from which I have a degree in film writing, production and directing. Post- college my team and I decided to combine filmmaking with the animal kingdom and we began developing television and film projects. What are some challenges you have faced and how did you deal with them?
There is a laundry list of challenges we face each and every day. Everything from raising funding in order to take an expedition for filming right down to surviving in the environment as we seek out the animals we hope to encounter and film.
Combining the world of filmmaking with animals and dangerous situations within environments is like a triple threat challenge. Each one has its own obstacles and we take them on one at a time in a strategic manner. We believe the key to succeeding at anything in life is nothing more than taking things one step at a time!
It is incredibly fun and rewarding work when things manage to pan out, and we always seem to find a way to make the impossible happen! I credit that to my own ambitions and to an amazing producing team, camera team and the wonderful organizations and individuals that help us when on location filming. When we do finally encounter animals that we seek in the wild…well that credit all goes to the beauty of nature and the “right place…right time” theory.
What can people do to help? Donate, and contribute to your cause? Other ideas?
Well, people can ALWAYS help. Mostly we raise independent financing for our projects but this year we will tackle some huge conservation projects for which donations would be more than appreciated! If people follow us through social media they will be able to keep up with what we are doing and we will advertise how to get involved. I also love to do public appearances and will always travel to meet new people and conservation groups. How do you reach your targeted audience?
We reach out to our audience mostly through the Internet. For us it’s all about creating interesting content, whether original or shared from others. If we can help educate and promote conservation for the planet and its animals we are doing the right thing. We find that staying consistent with our work is the best way to garner a following. Right now the CP Animal Anthology, which is a mixture of photograph collages and succinct facts, seems to keep our fans through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram entertained. As we begin to release video content we are confident our fan base will only keep growing!
Is it through your website, advertising or social media or another route?
Right now its social media, although in the future these devices will be a way to push fans and followers toward our website and internet channels. Which is most effective and why?
Most effective is probably Facebook, just because SO many people are on it multiple times a day. It also allows you to share video and photo content quickly and links to all other social media platforms comfortably. We use FB as our primary source of information sharing and combined with the iPhone it is an unstoppable force! For example, the Animal Anthology is created using nothing more than the iPhone and the Internet…animal education and conservation are right in the palms of our hands…it’s so cool to live in an age when technology allows so much creativity!
How do you keep the audience engaged over time?
It’s all about new content. However, it has to be GOOD content. If you are consistently creating quality, people will keep coming back. We aspire to really engage with our fan base and want to know what THEY want to see. Social media is a huge help with that, because it allows our audience to interact and make suggestions!
Tell us about your events around the world and some of the campaigns you have started.
As we began Coyote Peterson Brands just two years ago, we have only travelled a limited amount. Although we did go to Costa Rica to film, we find that there is much to be done in our own community, and hope that our audience adopts this message as well! Our work in Columbus, Ohio has focused on research and conservation of wetland environment. Specifically, we research Common Snapping Turtles, promote the preservation of their habitats, and educate a vast audience about these incredible and often misunderstood reptiles.
However, we are currently gearing up to start a conservation project and documentary film for Polar Bears which will be shot this fall in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Polar Bears are the largest land predator on the planet, yet they are disappearing as the sea ice they depend on for survival continues to melt away from climate change. This will be our biggest undertaking yet in the realm of conservation, and we feel one of the most important we will ever have the chance to be a part of. My team is unbelievably excited to be taking on this challenge and it will certainly be a life changing experience. What is in the works for the future?
We have so much planned it makes our heads spin! We have two web/tv series in development. Swamp Monsters sends my team and me across the eastern part of the US as we follow a trail of folklore stories, photographic evidence and scientific facts while tracking down giant snapping turtles, hoping to capture and release a new world record. Brave Wilderness is an animal adventure and conservation series that follows my team and me into remote locations as we track down and film some of the planet’s most amazing and misunderstood animals. This series will span the globe and encompass the entire animal kingdom; no animal is too big or small for these adventures! Both series are in development and begin filming this summer. Finally, Polar Ghost isour documentary on Polar Bears and their plight facing extinction in the wild. This will be a feature length documentary that we will submit to film festivals and then hopefully distribute through a network like National Geographic. So in short…2013 is going to be one crazy and adventure filled year!
What haven’t you yet tackled, but will want to do soon?
Ha ha, that’s a big one! I guess our overall goal is to have spent time on every continent, filming with as many of the world’s animals as possible and doing our absolute best to work with and promote as many conservation groups as possible. Brave Wilderness will truly be the vehicle for that goal and while I might host the series…it’s really the animals and the conservation groups that we will work with who are the “stars” of the series. Animals need help and as long as humans are on the planet they always will. It’s a long road but we can’t wait to travel it!
What else would like our readers to know?
We have a ton of incredible sponsors that believe in our vision for the future of animal entertainment and conservation and it’s because of these sponsors that we are geared to the max! People always want to know where I get all of my cool stuff, from the hat to the multi-tools, and all of them can be found on my website. The team and I feel incredibly lucky to have what we consider to be the best names in the world of animal adventure behind us!
Great video of a Frog and Toad!
Wild video of a Snapping Turtle… or two…
To learn more about Coyote Peterson Brands, visit and follow the links below:
This is a guest post by Rebecca Newman, who is a freshman at Ithaca College studying Environmental Sciences.
I will be biking through New England for the Better Future Project.
Climate Summer 2013 Dates: June 7th – August 16th, 2013
The Better Future Project is an organization that promotes communities to move beyond using fossil fuels. Climate Summer is a program through the Better Future Project where young adults ride exclusively by bicycle to various towns in New England.
In these towns we will try to make changes towards a cleaner world by educating and organizing events in each community. As a rider this summer I am very excited to have this unique opportunity to help people make more sustainable choices. For a long time I have been interested in the environment and specifically making the change from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Would you be willing to donate to this cause? Your donation helps fund the movement this summer and helps people to make more sustainable choices. You can follow our progress this summer by going to climatesummer.net
Also if you have any questions about the trip you can email me at rnewman1@ithaca.edu
To donate by check, you can make the check out to:
Better Future Project/OSI (please put Rebecca Newman in the notation section on the check!), and mail it to:
Open Space Institute/Better Future Project Citizen Action Program
c/o Nekenasoa Randresihaja
1350 Broadway, Suite 201
New York, NY 10018
To donate by credit card you can go to Climate Summer (please use Rebecca Newman for the “in honor of.”)
