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Monte verde toad (Bufo periglenes).

Photo credit: Charles H. Smith

The Golden Toad (Bufo periglenes) was a small, shiny, bright-orange toad that was once abundant in a small region high-altitude cloud-covered tropical forests, about 30 square kilometers in area, above the city of Monteverde, Costa Rica. For this reason, it is sometimes also called the Monteverde Golden Toad, or the Monte Verde Toad. Other common English names include Alajuela Toad and Orange Toad.

They were described in 1966, but since 1989, not a single Golden Toad has been seen anywhere in the world, and it is classified by the IUCN as an extinct species. Its extinction is cited as part of the decline in amphibian populations, and attributed to climate change due to global warming.