Months after Super Bowl LX, Puerto Rico’s only native toad species is still having a moment thanks to Bad Bunny.
And with a little help from the Brookfield Zoo, that turn in the spotlight might just save the amphibian from extinction.
The singer’s mascot is named Concho, and it was created in the likeness of the endangered Puerto Rican crested toad. Bad Bunny, whose given name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, adopted the creature as a mascot and symbol of resilience, mirroring the toad’s struggles to stay alive with the displacement that islanders face today.
Known as the sapo concho in Spanish, the species is the Caribbean island’s only native toad. Years ago, the Puerto Rican Crested Toad Conservancy tapped the suburban Chicago zoo to breed thousands of tadpoles, but Brookfield hit a milestone this spring.
More than 12,000 tadpoles were shipped to Puerto Rico in May as part of an effort to save the endangered species. The natural habitats of the toads have been lost due to the rise of invasive species, predators, gentrification and deforestation, according to expert biologist Ramón L. Rivera Lebrón, who works with Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.
The sapo concho plays a crucial role in maintaining the island’s natural ecosystem. In protecting the toad’s habitats, ecologists are helping maintain the survival of other native Puerto Rican birds, reptiles and other wild animals. The amphibians also help keep insect populations at bay.
Rivera Lebrón describes the toads as “gorgeous” and “very elegant” creatures. They’re “much prettier” than the invasive marine toads that have contributed to the concho’s demise, he said.
In fact, the toads were thought to be extinct until they were rediscovered in 1966. The number of tadpoles bred this year at Brookfield is the largest yield since the Chicagoland zoo first started breeding them in 2017.
“The best thing about conservation is when it has an end date,” said Mike Masellis, Brookfield Zoo’s lead animal care expert. He said the Puerto Rican Crested Toad Conservancy’s goal is to delist the species from endangered status within the next 10 years.
Masellis recently got his tires rotated and said that he spotted people in the waiting room wearing their own sapo concho t-shirts, signaling an increase in familiarity with the species. “Five years ago, that wasn’t really the case,” he said.
“I think every celebrity should probably be paired with an endangered species because it helps a lot,” Masellis continued, noting that he’d love to host Bad Bunny at the zoo sometime. (The last time Bad Bunny performed in Chicago was at the United Center in 2024 after the release of his album “Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana.”)
The animal care expert traveled to Puerto Rico last fall to release tadpoles and see the toads in their natural habitats with the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. There, Masellis met with Rivera Lebrón and Jan Paul Zegarra, a biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service who is also helping with the repopulation project.
“We released baby toads and some adult toads, and then we monitored and tracked them every night to see how they did after release,” he said. They observed the non-native marine toad — a South American species introduced to the island in 1919 to control agricultural pests — preying on sapo concho tadpoles and adult frogs.
Masellis said that the experts are “really looking for places where the tadpoles will have as little competition as possible.”
But everything starts in a small, humid room at the Brookfield Zoo. Set to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the room is equipped with holding tanks for the toads, large sinks for the females to lay their eggs and live crickets for feeding time.An important piece of the puzzle for the zoo, Masellis said, is controlling the temperature of the conservation room.
“When it comes time to actually breed the toads, we can actually chill them for a little bit, which would mimic a cooler season in Puerto Rico,” Masellis said. “And then [we] can warm them back up, and that tends to get them kind of in the mood and ready to lay eggs.”
In May, thousands of Brookfield tadpoles were shipped to Puerto Rico by air freight. Each package contains a styrofoam box with approximately 1,000 baby toads, kept alive with a heat pack and oxygen.
By the time they reach Puerto Rico’s tropical climate, the tadpoles are ready to be released in vernal pools in two specific parts of the island: Arecibo, on the northern coast, and Guánica, on the southern coast.
In Arecibo, the Toad Conservancy has big plans to build a large breeding facility. The building is still in the planning and permitting stages, Rivera Lebrón said. But it’ll be the central location of the project, and it will help cut down on shipping costs.
“Since the 90s, we haven’t seen the toads in the wild in Arecibo,” Rivera Lebrón said. “They depended on cavities in certain streams that would flood sporadically during the rainy season. That stopped happening, and those genetics were eliminated.”
Tadpoles are released in the dry forests of the southern Guánica, Puerto Rico, where the last naturally occurring population of the crested toads lives today. That land is protected in the Guánica State Forest, River Lebrón said.
But significant shifts in global temperatures and weather patterns are yet another threat.
“Climate change has caused sea levels to rise and salinity to infiltrate the ponds, which used to be freshwater,” he said. “What were previously known as appropriate natural areas for the toads are still used, but the time they have to develop is much shorter.”
The biologist says that Bad Bunny’s music has helped increase media and research interest in the toads, but there is still a great need for resources.
The mascot even appeared on a float at Sunday’s Puerto Rican People’s Day Parade, rolling down Division Street sporting Concho’s signature blue long-sleeve and red sweatpants.
It’s those types of interactions with the mascot that Rivera Lebrón and his colleagues inspire even more interest in the real toads.
“It’s a unique species that has been featured by an artist, allowing people to take a closer look at Puerto Rico — and not just for conservation purposes,” he said. “Above all, I want people to learn about our culture and to get to know our one-of-a-kind animals.”