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.

The Tale of the Golden Toad, by Madeline Von Foerster. 

Roq La Rue Art Gallery, Seattle WA:  

“Although imagining the future, a common theme of the paintings is memory. While researching these works, the artist hunted for a fairytale titled “The Golden Toad,” which she was certain she had read. However, memory was deceiving her, for the Golden Toad (Bufo periglenes) is actually a Costa Rican amphibian, recently extinct. Ironically, though humans are responsible for the planet’s vanishing forests and extirpated species, it is in human imagination and memory that these lost treasures will continue to exist. Therefore, the Golden Toad, now gone, returns in mythical form, to remind us what we can still save.”

Extinct since 2004.