The Search for the Golden Toad and Other Adventures in the Wild

When twin brothers Trevor and Kyle Ritland were children, their father — a biologist — would tell them stories about a mythical creature that lived high in the misty mountains of Costa Rica: the golden toad. The toad was elusive, he told them — but for a few weeks every spring, hundreds of them would emerge from the shadows in order to mate, lighting up the dense forest like brilliant spots of fire. Until one day, the golden toad vanished — never to be seen again.

It’s mysteries like these that have drawn scores of researchers out of their labs and into the wild — tugging them to explore, to climb distant mountains, to venture into faraway forests and discover or rediscover something: a creature, a place, some new clue.

On this episode, we hear stories of those adventures. We talk with Trevor and Kyle about their quest to find out what happened to the golden toad — and what they ultimately discovered. We hear the epic tale of writer Kim Frank’s journey to India in search of wild Asian elephants. And we talk with conservation ecologist Ryan Almeida about how the illicit global wildlife trade is affecting certain species and their habitats.

ALSO HEARD:

• We talk with brothers Kyle and Trevor Ritland — a writer and documentary filmmaker, respectively — about their search for the mythical golden toad, a presumed-extinct species that hasn’t been seen for over three decades, and what they learned in their travels through the cloud forests of Costa Rica. Their book is “The Golden Toad: An Ecological Mystery and the Search for a Lost Species.”
• They’re the kind of animals you only expect to see in documentaries — green anacondas; giant alligator snapping turtles; even the deadly black mamba — but around the world, millions of these often dangerous animals are sold as pets on the black market. We talk with conservation ecologist Ryan Almeida about what fuels the illicit wildlife trade, its effects on native habitats, and efforts to shut it down.