Natural Features in Texas

The Houston Toad's Missing Home

Nature·Harris County·Texas

There is a federally endangered amphibian named for this city that no longer lives anywhere near it. The Houston toad was described in the 1950s from specimens collected here, needs deep sandy soil to burrow into and clean seasonal ponds to breed in, and lost both to the city's growth — it was gone from Harris County by around 1970. It became one of the first amphibians ever placed on the U.S. endangered species list, and the surviving population is now more than a hundred miles west in the sandy country around Bastrop.

Getting there

29.7400, -95.4300

Locations are approximate and may be inaccurate, on private land, or otherwise inaccessible. Check before you travel.

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