
Fort Worth Zoo
There are moments when an unexpected voice rises, drawing attention to something long overlooked. When Bad Bunny, the global superstar, and Puerto Rican native, released a short film to accompany his album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, the world saw something it hadn’t before: the animated face of the Puerto Rican crested toad, colloquially known as Sapo Concho. This toad, critically endangered and symbolic of Puerto Rico’s natural and cultural identity, had never been on such a grand stage. But in that film, the toad got its moment in the spotlight — and so did its battle for survival.
For over 40 years, the Fort Worth Zoo has quietly but tirelessly worked behind the scenes to help preserve this unique amphibian, starting with its involvement in the conservation of the Sapo Concho in 1984. The zoo’s efforts — breeding, reintroducing, and studying the toad — have been methodical and ambitious, but they’ve always been about more than just saving a species. It’s about returning a little piece of the island’s soul back to its home.
At the heart of this work is Diane Barber, the senior curator of Ectotherms at the zoo. Since 2005, she has led the breeding and reintroduction efforts, all while working closely with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. In the years since, those efforts have expanded, with an annual release of tadpoles, and to date, more than 830,000 tadpoles have been released back into Puerto Rico’s wild, according to a release. The zoo has even surpassed 107,000 of those releases.
“Reptile and amphibian species often become overshadowed when compared to some of the more ‘charismatic’ species like elephants and manatees and it is difficult to compete for limited resources and support needed for their conservation,” Barber said in a statement.

Fort Worth Zoo
The Sapo Concho isn’t just any toad, either. It’s the only toad species native to Puerto Rico. And its survival is precarious, teetering on the edge of extinction due to habitat destruction, rising sea levels, and invasive predators. The toad is now found only in one place on the island — Guanica Commonwealth Forest — and without the zoo’s ongoing efforts to breed, monitor, and restore its habitat, it would vanish forever.
This is where the collaboration between the Fort Worth Zoo and Bad Bunny becomes more than just an alliance of celebrity and science. It’s a chance to make the invisible visible, to take a small, little-known species and give it a voice that resonates with millions. Barber, who works tirelessly with the Puerto Rican Crested Toad Conservancy to lead this global effort, says, “It’s pretty incredible to have someone like Bad Bunny, with the platform that he has, to raise awareness about this little toad and find a commonality to connect people to the toad and their natural surroundings.”
The Sapo Concho, a tiny but mighty indicator species, is more than just a toad. It’s a bellwether, a sign that the ecosystem is off balance. When its numbers falter, so too might others. The Fort Worth Zoo is committed to bringing this delicate balance back — not just for the toad, but for Puerto Rico’s entire fragile ecosystem.
As Barber explains, " Teaching people about the existence of the PRCT has been difficult because of the common occurrence of the introduced, invasive marine toad, for which many people confuse as a Sapo concho. Bad Bunny has provided us a way to show people what a Sapo concho looks like so we can effectively teach others about the toad’s rarity, threats to its survival, and enable Puerto Ricans to become involved in its conservation.”