Distribution: Very common throughout the northeast extending as far north as Hudson Bay.

Habitat: Found in a variety of habitats, but is most common in open rocky woods and along forest edges. American toads require a semi-permanent freshwater pond or pool for their early development. They also require dense patches of vegetation, for cover and hunting grounds.

Physical Characteristics: Newly-metamorphosed toadlets are usually 0.8-1.3 cm long when they first emerge. Their coloration is similar to the adult toad: mottled brown with dark spots and bumps.

Most adult American toads grow to two to three and one half inches (50-75 mm) long, measured from snout to vent. They have short legs and round bodies. There are four toes on the front legs. Five toes are connected together by a webbing on their hind legs.

The American toad’s pupils are oval and black with a circle of gold around them.

The skin of the American toad is very thick, rough, and darkly spotted. Each spot has one or two prominent "warts". These warts can be colored red and yellow. This toad’s skin color is normally a shade of brown but toad skin color changes depending on the temperature, humidity and the amount of stress the toad is experiencing. The color change ranges from yellow to brown to black. The bellies are a white or yellow color. The sexes can be distinguished in three ways. Males have dark colored throats, of black or brown, and females have white throats. Females are larger than male American Toads. Females are over all a lighter color than the male toads.

Toads (both larvae and adults) have defensive chemicals in their skin.

Diet: The American toad typically hunts at night, and is most active in humid and wet conditions. These toads are generalists, they eat a wide variety of insects and other invertebrates, including earthworms and slugs. Most prey is captured with their wide and sticky tongues. They also may use their front legs in order to eat larger food. They grasp their food and push it into their mouths.

An American toad can eat one hundred insects in a night.

Reproduction: Breeding occurs in the months of March or April, but usually lasts only 10-14 days. Mating can be triggered by warming temperatures and longer days. The males always arrive to the mating grounds well ahead of females. They choose shallow wetlands, ponds, lakes and slow-moving streams. After finding a suitable area, the male toads begin calling the females. Females may choose their mates by assessing the males breeding calls as well as the quality of the defended breeding territory.
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Eggs: The eggs are black on top and white on the bottom (countershaded), and embedded in long strings of clear sticky gel.

Larvae: The larvae that hatch from eggs are called "tadpoles." They are dark, almost black, with smooth skin, round bodies and a somewhat rounded tail. They grow to over a centimeter in length before transforming.

The American Toad is a Facultative Species and may be found in vernal pools, but can reproduce in other aquatic habitats where they are available.

Photo by Rich Glor.

Natural History: American Toads are mainly nocturnal, and are most active when the weather is warm and humid. Toads do not drink water but soak it in, absorbing moisture through their skin. American Toads, while still growing, shed their external skin every couple of weeks or so. Older frogs loose their skin around four times yearly. The skin peels off in one piece, and is collected under its tongue, where it is then gulped down.

During the day American toads hide under rocks or logs or dig into dead leaves and soil. In regions with a cold winter, American toads dig deeper to hibernate. When digging they back in, pushing out dirt with their back legs.

Vernal Pool Conservation

What you can do:

• Resist the temptation to clean up in and around vernal pool habitats. Leave trees, bushes, and understory vegetation, as well as brush, logs, and dead trees.
• Leave a buffer of natural vegetation around the pool for as great a distance as possible back from the edge of the pool's high-water mark. A buffer of at least 100 feet will help maintain water quality, but will do little to protect amphibians living around the pool. Vernal pool breeders require at least 300 yards of natural habitat around their pools in order to survive.
• Do not fill in the pool, even when it is dry, by dumping leaves or other debris in it.
• In areas with more than one pool, try to maintain travel corridors of natural vegetation between them. If some clearing is necessary, avoid drastic alterations that remove most of the trees and other cover. If habitat alterations are necessary, conduct these activities between November and March, when amphibians are less likely to be present. Activities done when the ground is frozen will cause much less damage to the soil than those conducted during warmer months.
• Avoid activities that inadvertently alter the movement of surface water (hydrology) of the upland area that drains into the pool. Digging ditches and similar activities can change runoff into the pool, thereby altering its flooding cycle.
• Do not dig into the bottom of the pool, even when it is dry, as this will disturb the non-permeable layer of soil that allows the pool to flood.
• Work with local conservation commissions and other interested individuals to identify and document vernal pools in your area.

  *Adapted from the Audubon Society of New Hampshire and the Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Program of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department.

Photo by Tom Lautzenheiser.

Did You Know?: A vernal pool is a temporary or semi-permanent body of water, typically filled in the spring by snow melt and spring rain, and holding water for two or three months in the spring and summer.

Vernal pools form in contained basin depressions, meaning that while they may have an inlet, they have no permanent outlet forming a downstream connection to other aquatic systems. They are typically small, rarely exceeding 50 m in width, and are usually shallow. While most are filled with meltwater and spring rains, others may be filled during the fall or with a combination of seasonal surface runoff and intersection with seasonally high groundwater tables. Typical substrates are formed primarily of dense leaf litter. While most vernal pools are found in upland forest, several types have been identified, including floodplain basins, swamp pools and marsh pools.

Periodic drying is a key feature of the ecology of vernal pools. Drying precludes the establishment of permanent fish populations, which would otherwise act as predators on the eggs and larvae of species that live or breed in the pool. While a typical vernal pool is dry during at least part of the year, others may contain some water throughout the year (or for several years), but a combination of shallow water, summer heat, winter freezing, and periodic oxygen depletion prevent the establishment of fish populations.

Terms:

Obligate Species: Species must live or breed in vernal pools.
Facultative Species: Species may be found in vernal pools, but can reproduce in other aquatic habitats where they are available.
Amplexus: The copulatory embrace of frogs and toads, during which the male fertilizes the eggs that are released by the female.
Dorsolateral ridge: Lines or folds of skin (usually gold colored) along the upper sides of some frogs in the family Ranidae.
Intercalary cartilage: An extra piece of cartilage in the toes of members of the Hylidae (tree frog) family. It causes the end of the toes to have a “stepped-down” appearance.
Parotoid glands: Large skin glands that appear as swellings on each side of the back of the head of toads (family Bufonidae) and some salamanders.
Tympanum: This is the external ear drum visible on the side of the head of most frogs.

Grossman, S. 2002. "Bufo americanus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web
Accessed March 03, 2004 at https://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Bufo_americanus.html

The Roger Tory Peterson Institute is a national, non-profit nature education organization with headquarters in Jamestown, New York, birthplace of world renowned artist and naturalist, Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996). In collaboration with the Center for Applied Technologies in Education, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute has provided these animal profiles to offer a glimpse into the diversity of Vernal Pools in our region.