Until recently, 13 of the 25 specie

Until recently, 13 of the 25 species of harlequin toads in Ecuador had gone unseen since the 1980s or early 1990s. Scientists thought most of them had been wiped out by a fungal disease called chytrid. This illness is especially harmful to the harlequin toad.Costales says the Mindo harlequin may have developed a resistance to the disease. That would explain the toad’s reappearance. And it could spell good news for other harlequins. Since discovering the first one, Costales’s team has found five more. They were all tested for chytrid. None had the disease. But that doesn’t mean the survival of the species is guaranteed, Costales says. The harlequin toad is still endangered.Costales is developing a conservation plan with a zoology museum in Ecuador. She wants to make sure the Mindo harlequin toad doesn’t fall back into extinction.“Each rediscovery gives us a second chance to develop better conservation strategies,” she says. “Not every day do we have the opportunity to rediscover a species that we believed to be extinct.”