Yellow-bellied Toad
Identification: Small, very warty, aquatic toad with a flattened body. Length up to 5 cm, usually smaller. Pupil triangular or heart-shaped. No eardrum visible, no paratoid glands. Back dark grey, brown, greenish or yellowish, sometimes with vague dark or lighter spots. The prominent warts often end in black spiny points. Belly bright yellow to orange with an irregular pattern of blue-grey or blackish markings that enclose a few small white spots. Usually the ratio black-yellow is 50:50, but animals are also found with an almost totally yellow belly. Well-developed webbing between the toes of the hind legs. In the breeding season, males have dark nuptial pads on the inside of the forearms and the first few inner fingers. In males the front legs and the webbing on the hind legs are better developed than in females. They have no vocal sac.
Similar species, which are also kept as pets and can be encountered in the wild sometimes:
-The closely related Fire-bellied Toad (Bombina bombina), which is even less able to establish breeding colonies in the UK.
-The Oriental fire-bellied toad (Bombina orientalis), which is very similar to the European species but has a brown or green base colour with black markings above.
Range: Occurs in a large part of central and south-east Europe. In the British Isles, commonly kept as pets, and some have escaped or been deliberately released into some areas. The Yellow-bellied Toad has survived and bred in the wild, though populations are of a transient nature, due to very specialised habitat requirements. Breeding has occurred in both Devon and South London.
Habitat: In the north of its range, often in disturbed areas like quarries, industrial estates and military training grounds. Breeding in open, sunny, shallow small waters, preferably with little vegetation, like drinking troughs, flooded tyre tracks, small ponds, pools in marshes or shallows at the edges of rivers. Often these are temporary waters that are dried out for part of the year. Often close to woods. In the south of its range, also found in clear, flowing brooks and locally up to altitudes of 2000 metres.
Habits: They are active from April to October. Active at day and night in the breeding season. Stays in the water most of the time, often with many of them in very small waters, but can also be found further up on land. Goes on land to hunt, especially at dusk and at night, in rainy weather sometimes also during the day. The breeding season is from April to August, during which several clutches of eggs are laid, mostly after rain. Clutches are not laid simultaneously, which spreads the risk in case the waters dry out. They produce 100-180 eggs in the course of the season, divided into small clumps of 10-30 eggs, attached to grassy or other vegetation hanging or standing in the water. After only 2-3 days, the larvae hatch when they are 7-9 mm long. The larvae have a relatively short tail. They grow up to about 5.5 cm. Metamorphosis takes place after 6-9 weeks. The first toads appear in June and are 1-1.5 cm long. They usually mature after 2 years. The larvae mainly feed on vegetable matter like algae and gradually switch to animal matter like insects and earthworms. Yellow-bellied Toads are quite shy; when disturbed, they dive into the mud of the bottom of the water body. If molested, they may take the "Unkenreflex". This position, in which the back is arched strongly and the limbs are thrown up to show the bright yellow colours of the underside, warns enemies of the poisonous nature of this toad. (They don't throw themselves upside down!). They can produce a whitish, bitter, strong-smelling skin secretion. Larvae can be found until late in the autumn; mature animals leave the water from mid-September and stay on land before they dig themselves in for hibernation.
How to find: Go towards their call or observe suitable pools. They are often seen floating with legs spread on the surface of the water, but quickly dive under when disturbed. The best way is to observe the water quietly from a distance.
Call: Quickly repeated, rather musical "oeh
oeh
oeh
". Usually more than 40 calls a minute. Can be mistaken for the call of the Scops Owl. Calls during the day, but on warm summer days also until late in the evening.