Photo by Jim Jung. All rights reserved.

Fowler's Toads

Fowler's Toad is the quintessential hop-toad we all encountered in our childhoods - the one we were told would give us warts if handled - and it's calling now from ponds and pools all over our area. Listen for a flat, extremely unmusical, nasal blaaaht around dusk or just after, since they're noisiest then.

Their only natural enemy (if you don't count human highway technology) is the Hognosed Snake which is just about the only animal that can keep these things down once swallowed. Each wart on their skin is a tiny poison factory and storage unit and when the animal feels itself abused a milky white fluid is exuded from each one. Full of cardiac glycosides and other nasty chemicals that cause serious, acute health problems for any vertebrate ingesting it, these are extremely toxic critters.

Like all of our frogs and toads the males congregate at bodies of water and call for the females who follow shortly thereafter. Mating takes place in the usual anuran way and the tadpoles are left to their own devices. Unlike frogs which lay gelatinous clumps of eggs, toads deposit theirs in long gelatinous strings which can trail for considerable distances through the water but are usually found in tangled masses.

I've found, in our area at least, that while the mating season for this species might last for as long as a month, mating activities in each individual pond and pothole only lasts for a few days. So these amphibians spread themselves widely across the landscape.

Expect to find mating congresses almost anywhere since these Toads will lay their eggs just about anywhere there's water - in ponds, along creeks, in potholes, garden pools and even in plastic children's wading pools... which is probably one of the reasons they're so successful since these are, by far, the most common toad in our area.

Offsite Link:

• Canada's Aquatic Enviornments's Fowler's Toad. Check out their link to "Vocalization!"

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