Bufo americanus

Identifying Features

• 2 to 4 inches long; brownish and warty-skinned.
• Generally common, but has experienced recent local population declines.
• Tolerates a wide variety of habitats.
• Most active on rainy, humid evenings.
• Remain buried in moist soil, leaf litter, and beneath logs or rocks.
• Burrow deeply into soil during winter and prolonged dry periods and remain dormant until conditions improve.
• Parotid glands produce whitish secretions which contain steroidal defenses.  Attacking predators may experience illness or death due to changes in heart function and blood pressure.

Call

• A long, steady trill lasting about 30 seconds.

Breeding

• Prefer to breed in shallow, temporary waters with little to moderate amounts of emergent and submergent vegetation.
• Breeding sites include flooded fields, ditches, stock or ornamental ponds, open marshes, and backwaters.
• Occurs in early April and late May and can last into June or July if temperatures are cooler.
• Females lay from 2000 to over 20,000 eggs in loops on the bottom of the pond or backwater.

Development

• Eggs hatch in 2-14 days depending on water temperatures. 
• Tadpoles often form large schools.
• Tadpoles transform into frogs in 6-10 weeks; hundreds of young toads swarm near breeding ponds.
• Few survive the 2-3 years required to reach sexual maturity.

Conservation Note

• Fairly adaptable, local declines due to loss or degradation of breeding sites.

Habitat Type

• Ephemeral wetlands.
• Permanent wetlands.
• Rivers and streams.
• Forests.
• Grasslands and savannas.
• Caves and springs.
• Agricultural areas.
• Urban areas.