Desert Toad

Incilius alvarius

Amphibian

Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing desert toads. Also known as Colorado River toads and Sonoran desert toads, these amphibians can be found in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. As their common name implies, desert toads live in arid, desert-like regions. They are often found near sources of permanent freshwater, but they sometimes move to temporary pools for breeding. Desert toads also live in mountain canyons and forests. They utilize rodent burrows, rock crevices, and natural hollows for resting during the day and colder months. They're most active at night.

Desert toads have relatively smooth skin for a toad with few warts, though they do have prominent white warts on each of their cheeks. In size, they range from just over four inches (10cm) to over seven inches (18cm) in length with males appearing smaller than females, as is common in many toad species. They're often cited as the largest living native toads in North America! 

Desert toads are voracious eaters and consume just about anything they can catch. Their large size gives them access to meals such as worms, snails, crickets, grubs, spiders, scorpions, mice, and even smaller toads. As tadpoles they're believed to be omnivores. Like cane toads, desert toads are protected from predation due to poisonous toxins in their skin. They'll secrete a milky substance when threatened. In smaller mammals, contact with a desert toad can prove fatal, and in larger mammals they cause irritation and nausea. In humans, a desert toad's poison causes auditory hallucinations.

Desert toads are solidarity but do gather in large groups during the breeding season. They come out to breed right after rain showers in spring and summer months, though they aren't dependent on rain to mate. Males have weak calls described as similar to a ferry whistle: (audio). They may use their voice to entice a female, but they're also known to simply seek out a partner without serenading her. Females produce about 8,000 eggs that are laid in a gelatinous strand and fertilized externally. These hatch into tadpoles about a week later and take around a month to develop into frogs. On average, desert toads live five years in the wild, though some have been observed living three times this long!

When their poison can't protect them, desert toads fall prey to raccoons who know to avoid the poison glands on the toad's back. Raccoons flip the toads over and eat their insides starting with their belly. Other threats include run-ins with cars on roads that run through their habitat.

For more facts on desert toads, check out the links below. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today. Thank you to our Patrons SpikeSpiegel93, Dad, and everyone else for their support of this channel! And thank you for watching Animal Fact Files!