Golden Toad, Costa Rica:

“The rapid manner in which this population vanished, from 1500 to none in just a few years, has led to the argument that Bufo periglenes suffered from a high adult mortality rather than the gradual effects expected from poor juvenile recruitment or unsuccessful breeding (Pounds and Crump 1994). This reasoning, in conjunction with the toad’s pristine habitat, have centered causal hypotheses around abiotic factors involving climate change (Pounds et al. 1999).

“Possible reasons for amphibian decline:

“Prolonged drought
Long-distance pesticides, toxins, and pollutants
Weakened immune capacity
Climate change, increased UVB or increased sensitivity to it, etc.”

Author: Sean Schoville, University of California at Berkeley

….as for today, the Golden Toad lives only in our memories and art.