The Golden Toad, Trevor Ritland
The Golden Toad, Trevor Ritland
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Golden Toad
An Ecological Mystery and the Search for a Lost Species

Author: Trevor Ritland, Kyle Ritland

Narrator: Nick Mondelli

Unabridged: 9 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/17/2025


Synopsis

As young boys, Trevor and Kyle Ritland were fascinated by the golden toad of Costa Rica, a brilliant species their biologist father showed them in his projector's slide shows. Native to only one wind-battered ridgeline high on the continental divide above the cloud forests of Monteverde, thousands of golden toads would congregate for a few weeks each year in ephemeral pools among the twisted roots to mate, deposit their offspring, and retreat again beneath the earth. But from one year to the next, the toads disappeared without a trace. Since then, only rumors remain, which beg the question: could the golden toad still be alive?

In The Golden Toad, Trevor and Kyle set off to investigate an environmental mystery with unexpected revelations, a story that speaks to our own collective and uncertain future. Guided by Costa Rican naturalists—including the last person to have seen the golden toad alive—Trevor searches for survivors while Kyle hunts the killer, and their paths lead them through an imperiled forest, a deadly pandemic, and a changing climate, intertwining at the site of the golden toad's last emergence deep in Monteverde's Bosque Eterno de Los Niños.

The Golden Toad changes the conversation around extinction, climate change, and conservation while exploring environmental grief, resurrection, and hope in a changing world.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sarah on May 17, 2025

Review: The Golden Toad: An Ecological Mystery and the Search for a Lost Species by Trevor Ritland & Kyle Ritland 🌿 Overview The Golden Toad is a haunting yet hopeful exploration of one of ecology’s most enigmatic disappearances. Blending memoir, scientific investigation, and environmental advocacy,......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on June 23, 2025

Trevor and Kyle Ritland grew up listening to their father's stories of the many magical animals of Costa Rica, including the striking Golden Toad which inhabits the cloud forests of Monteverde on the continental divide.  The little toads, which only come out from underground a few weeks a year to ma......more

Goodreads review by Dan on August 17, 2025

My thanks to Goodreads and the authors for an advance copy of this book that mixes classic adventure and arduous expeditions into deep jungles, along with a study on why many species are dying off, and what we as custodians of this planet can do. There is a lot of talk about AI and of rich people sta......more

Goodreads review by Jk on August 06, 2025

I received a free kindle copy of this book via a Goodreads Giveaway win and would like to thank anyone involved in making that happen! I vaguely remember hearing about the chytrid frog crisis in the early 2000’s, though at the time I paid it no special attention. I had no idea how widespread the deva......more

Goodreads review by Ula on June 08, 2025

An entertaining example of the genre I like to call "scientific adventure." Blending popular science and memoir, the authors take us on an emotional journey through a diverse and wonderful environment. I recommend it to anyone interested in nature conservation, biology, and/or mystery solving. Thanks......more