This toad looks similar to the American Toad, though it is slightly smaller and has several subtle distinguishing features. The easiest way to identify it is that it has three or more warts within each dark spot on its back.

I have almost always found this amphibian in sandy habitats, such as woodlands, meadows, prairies, sand dunes and lake shores. It prefers areas with loose soil that it can easily burrow into. Its skin is warty and bumpy. Toads have two kidney-shaped, raised parotid glands just behind their eyes that contain toxins. This is how these relatively slow-moving creatures prevent themselves from being eaten by predators.

Toads have big appetites and are considered to be beneficial to man, as they use their long tongues to snap up insects and other invertebrates. Fowler’s Toads are solitary, except when they congregate in shallow pools to breed in the spring. Their call is not as melodious as the trill of the American Toad; the Fowler Toad’s song sounds more like a buzzy quack.

I find this amphibian more often in other states than in my home state of Ohio, and I always enjoys coming across it in the wild.

Third Eye Herp
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