#western toads

[antiqueanimals]

Reptiles and Amphibians; a Guide to Familiar American Species. Illustrated by James Gordon Irving. 1956.

[glaciernps]

Wildlife Wednesday

Boreal toad (Anaxyrus boreas)

Boreal toads (also known as western toads) have a range extending from southern Alaska to northern California and into Wyoming and Colorado west of the continental divide. They occur throughout Glacier and may be found at elevations up to 8,000 feet. These amphibians, nocturnal during the summer months and diurnal during the spring and fall, frequent mountain meadows and wetlands near aspen trees or Douglas fir. The tadpoles are toxic and adults have potent glands behind their eyes and on their hind legs. This makes them better able to coexist with fish than many amphibian species which are often easy prey for a hungry trout. Boreal toads are disappearing from parts of their Rocky Mountain range, but there is no evidence they are declining in Glacier. In the burned areas following the large Moose Fire of 2001, nearly a dozen new toad breeding sites appeared the following year. Some park roads had to be closed for a time because thousands of migrating toadlets were moving across them. Scientists in Glacier are currently studying the toads to determine their adaptability to different hydrological conditions and response to fire in their habitat, as well as how they cope with the effects of climate change on wetlands.

Read more about Glacier’s amphibians here. 

NPS Photo [A boreal toad sits on the ground with grass behind it.]

[toadschooled]

you would not believe your eyes

if ten million tiny guys

[antiqueanimals]

From Frogs, Toads, and Salamanders, and How They Reproduce. Illustrated by Matthew Kalmenoff. 1975.

[agayherp]

Little babes I found while watching an orb weaver make her web!

[toadschooled]

Some soon-to-emerge Western toad toadlets [Anaxyrus boreas] using their legs as propulsion through the water. Kawkawa Lake, British Columbia, Canada.

[toadschooled]

more toads... we need more toads

I Googled “hundreds of toads” just for you and found this incredible footage

[lafingkat]

Look who I ran into on the way to the basement, Miss Toad! (top photo) Her business card reads Anaxyrus boreas, but it's just "Western Toad" to those that know her.  A couple of clues give away that she is pretty young. She's only about 1.5 inches long (~4cm) and adults can get to be about 5 inches (~13cm). Also, her white dorsal stripe is barely noticeable. If she were an adult, her stripe would be easy to see. 

Western toads are aptly named, as they are native to western North America. I read that in California, their habitat includes wet or dry mountain meadows or riparian deciduous forest, with available open water for breeding. I've lived in a handful of different Northern California biota; annual grasslands, mountain conifer forests (mainly Ponderosa pine) and coastal oak woodlands (Black & Live Oak, Madrone and Douglas Fir) and the Western Toad has always had a strong presence.

Some facts our young Miss Toad might put in her profile;

She has lovely blotchy olive to brown colored skin, a spotted belly and horizontal pupils. (oh, those eyes!)

Life style; aquatic eggs (in super cool stringy masses- middle photos from Spring of 2014), to tadpoles, to toadlets (the bottom photo) and then terrestrial adult toads (top photo of Miss Toad herself).

A nice dinner out might include; beetles, ants, rolly pollies, spiders (insects and arachnids they can hunt on the ground).

Western Toads are prey for birds, snakes, other amphibians and mammals. Ok... odds are good this fact would not be advertised in a Profile, but I digress.

The large bumps, off-set and behind her eyes are called parotoid glands. These are external skin glands which secrete a neurotoxin call bufotoxin. This is her main self defense mechanism against predators. 

I've been told that racoons will peal the skin off toads before eating them. Pretty tricky and well... gross, but if you're going to eat a live toad, you do what you have to do. 

She likes long slow walks, rather than hopping, but she can jump pretty far when needed.

She likes the night life, she's nocturnal.

She's a natural girl, no chemicals for her. Because she is an amphibian, she can be easily injured by the absorption of chemicals through her skin, especially fertilizers.