Common Toad
Identification: Rather large, heavily built toad. Large head, snout broad and round. Dry, warty skin. Males up to 8 cm, females up to 10 cm. Horizontal, elliptical pupil. Iris copper-coloured to orange. Large paratoid glands which, seen from above, diverge on the backside. Eardrum visible, but not very clear. Back colour grey to greyish brown, sometimes also olive, yellowish or reddish brown. Mostly uniform, sometimes with vague dark and light blotches. Belly grey or whitish, often with grey marbling. Poorly developed webbing between the toes of the hind limbs. In the breeding season (aquatic stage) the animals have a smoother skin. Males are smaller than females and have thicker forelimbs, longer hind limbs and in the breeding season dark nuptial pads on the first three fingers. They have no vocal sac. Young animals often have brick-red warts.
Range: Occurs in a large part of Europe. Distribution in the British Isles: Widespread in Britain. Also on Jersey and Guernsey. Not in Ireland.
Habitat: Favouring fairly dry or slightly damp areas with plenty of cover. Also found in small-scale cultivated areas, gardens and parks in both villages and towns. The Common Toad is generally more tolerant of dry habitats than the Common Frog. Preferably breeds in deeper open water like small lakes and large ponds exposed to the sun. Also in still water zones of rivers and brooks. In the south of its range, found up to altitudes of 2300 metres.
Habits: Mainly nocturnal, in breeding season also active at daytime (in the water). Migrates in early spring in large numbers from hibernation quarters to breeding water. Returns to the same water every year, preferably on rainy nights at a temperature above 3-4 degrees. Many road deaths occur. In a warm, moist spring this migration may start in mid-February, but most individuals migrate in March and April. Females stay only a few hours or days in the water, males sometimes a few months. In the breeding season, males clasp anything that resembles a female toad: other amphibians, fish, swimming small mammals and snakes, dead individuals or vegetable matter and other objects floating in the water. When there is a surplus of males in the water, a single female sometimes gets clasped by a ball of males and can be drowned. Normally a female is clasped by only one male and produces simultaneously two 3-5 metres long egg strings containing 3000-8000 eggs. After 2 to 3 weeks, the 3-5 mm long larvae hatch and often form large swarms. They feed mainly on vegetable matter like algae and switch gradually to animal matter. The larvae have bitter secretions in the skin and most fish won't eat them, but predatory insect larvae will. After 2 to 3 months the larvae are 3 to 4 cm long and metamorphose almost all at the same time after which, somewhere between the end of May and beginning of July, a massive migration of young toads starts. The newly metamorphosed toads are pitch-black, only 7-11 mm long and diurnal. After 2-4 years they mature. Until then, the toads don't go into water. Small toads feed mainly on mites, ants and springtails. Larger toads feed on all kinds of small invertebrates like insects and spiders as well as earthworms and slugs. Usually a toad walks, but it can also hop when alarmed. Sometimes individuals move far away from water. When threatened, a toad can produce a whitish, bitter, poisonous secretion from the paratoid glands. Toads hibernate on land under ground in holes between the roots of trees, in abandoned burrows or beneath tree trunks, stones and other objects.
How to find: Best chance at night, mainly in moist weather conditions. The larvae can be found in spring, when they often form dense swarms. A regular garden visitor, they may breed in garden ponds from February to April and individuals often use gardens as their summer habitat. They spend the days in hollows in the ground, coming out after dark on warm damp evenings to forage.
Call: Their call is a high "quààk-quààk-quààk", rather soft and monotonous. This call is not heard very often, and is produced mainly after the breeding season by solitary males who remained in the water. In the breeding season, you hear mainly the 'release' call, a high "koet-koet-koet" (2-3 times a second). This can be heard during the daytime and in the evening. Males produce this call when they accidentally touch or try to clasp each other.