Toad Facts

@toadfacts.bsky.social

I post daily(ish) facts about toads! My profile photo is an Anaxyrus americanus by Simon Pierre Barrette! Also find us at @toadfacts@toad.social on Mastodon!

Our friend the Quinghai Lake Toad is also known as the Round-warted Toad! They live in southwestern China and are somewhat common, even thriving in agricultural areas! (photo by CC黎明)

A brown toad with a greenish-yellow stripe down the middle of their back, and another similar stripe down their side! The stripes are surrounded by mottled black areas! The toad is covered in lots of large, widely spaced warty bumps!

Our friend Lönnbergs Toad lives on both sides of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya and also areas around Mount Kenya! They are a small toad, less than two inches long, and have no visible eardrums! (photo by Robin James)

A reddish-brown toad with very tough looking skin! They have large, pill-shaped parotoid glands and no visible eardrum!

Our friend the Karoo Toad lives in the semi-desert region of South Africa known as the Karoo! They are also known as the Gariep Toad, named after the original name for the Orange River in the Khoekhoe language! (photo by Jonathan Breytenbach)

A closeup of a brown toad on a brown, rocky surface! In the background is a clear blue sky and small, sparse plants! The toad has large warts on their back and very stout legs!

Our friend the Cerro Mali Beaked Toad lives in the lowland areas around the mountains that border Panama and Colombia! Their scientific name Rhinella acrolopha can be translated as "little nosed toad who lives on a mountain" which doesn't seem accurate at all! (photo by Sam Jones)

A rough-skinned brown toad with a very long triangular nose!

Our friend the Spotted Red-belly Toad is a small, colorful toad from Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay! Their bodies contain glands that store toxins from the insects that they eat, which in turn makes them toxic to predators! (photo by Stefan Göttel)

A hand holding a small black toad! The toad is covered in bright yellow spots on their back, and bright reddish orange spots on their belly! The toad is expanding their vocal sac and is all swollen! Puff up! Puff up they hate that!

Our friend the Zhushihe Mountain Toad lives in mountainous areas of China, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam! They are a member of genus Ophryophryne, which are known as Mountain Toads or Narrow-mouthed Horned Toads! (photo by Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok)

A brown toad sitting on a green leaf! They have very prominent pointy spikes on their eyelids that look a bit like horns! They have rough looking skin, with some of the texture forming slight ridges that run down the length of their back! They have very large feet and long, stout looking legs!

Our friend the Iberian Midwife Toad lives in Portugal and western Spain! Males of this species carry around a clutch of up to 180 eggs, sometimes from more than one female, to protect them until they hatch! Their call sounds like a loud beep, or perhaps a submarine ping! (photo by alzzal)

A brown toad covered in sand, sitting on a pebbly surface! Their back legs are surrounded by a large clutch of eggs nearly as large as the toad itself! They have small reddish spots on their eyelids and parotoid glands!

Our friend the Indus Valley Toad is also known as the Indian Marbled Toad and Punjab Toad! When handled roughly they will produce excretions that can cause irritation and boils on skin and have been known to sicken or kill dogs that attack them! (photo by Pritom Kumer Sur Roy)

A large greenish brown toad covered in lots of warty bumps! They have large parotoid glands!

Our friend the Emei Moustache Toad is known for the large row of keratinized spikes that males grow on their upper lip during mating season! These spikes are used to fight for breeding territories! Also, unlike most toads, the males tend to be much larger than the females! (photo by zodiacxxc)

A moist brown toad sitting on a moist rock! They have rough looking skin without warty bumps! Their eyes are mostly black but fade to a teal patch at the top! Oh, they also have a row of huge black spikes on their upper lip!

Our friend the Jingdong Toothed Toad has tiny teeth in their upper jaws! They live at high altitudes in the Mount Ailao region of the Yunnan province of China! Like other toothed toads, they have vertical pupils! (photo by Ji-Shen Wang)

A very bumpy brown toad with long arms and legs! They are covered in lots of large bumps and look quite moist! They have large eyes with vertical pupils!

Our friend the European Common Toad has the scientific name Bufo bufo, they are literally the "toad toad"! Scientists once found one crawling on the bottom of Loch Ness at a depth of 324 feet (98 meters)! (photo by Charlotte Kirchner)

A brown toad with elongated parotoid glands, covered in lots of tiny bumps! The bumps along their sides are somewhat spiky and reddish!

Our friend the Morro Do Baú Flea Toad is one of seven new species of Saddleback Toads that were first described in 2015 after an expedition in Brazil! Their scientific name Brachycephalus fuscolineatus refers to the dark stripe down their back! (photo by Luiz Ribiero)

A tiny orange toad with a wide greenish-black stripe down the middle of their back! They have pebbly-looking skin, very skinny legs, and large black eyes!

Our friend the Western Green Toad is a recognized subspecies of the North American Green Toad, though some scientists argue that they are too closely related to be different toads! They are a secretive toad who hides underground during the day and comes out at night to feed! (photo by John Sullivan)

A light green toad covered in lots of small irregular dark green spots! They have a somewhat rough appearance and have large warty bumps all over their sides!

Our friend the Inca Toad is a beaked toad from Peru! They were first described as a new species in 1913 and have moved in and out of synonymy with other species but recently have been recognized as a unique species! (photo by angelabelen)

A very spiky brown toad sitting on a mossy rock! They are covered in lots of tiny spiky bumps! They have prominent teardrop-shaped parotoid glands!

Our friend the Earless Toad, Bufo cryptotympanicus, lives in southern China and is named for their lack of external ear structures! They are also known as the Hidden-eared Toad, which is probably more apt because they do have inner ear structures and can hear! (photo by 皓皓)

A brown toad lying flat on the ground! They have a wide black stripe down their side that has a faded lighter brown band on the top and darker brown band along their belly! They have large parotoid glands that are black on the bottom and light on top! They are covered in warty looking bumps!

Our friend the Blue-spotted Toad is a very rare toad from Ecuador! They are covered in bluish spots which are believe to be aposematic! That means the colors advertise to predators that they are not good to eat! (photo by Luis A. Coloma)

A yellow-brown toad with dark spots, mostly black with a blue tinge to them! They have very coarse skin covered in lots of tiny bumps!

Our friend Carvalho's Tree Toad lives in the state of Espírito Santo in Brazil! Like other members of genus Dendrophryniscus, they live in trees and lay their eggs in the water-filled cavities of plants! When threatened they stiffen their legs and play dead! (photo by Rafael Barros)

A slender brown toad with dark brown symmetrical markings on their back! They have long, skinny legs with a bit of reddish blush at the elbows! They have rather rough skin!

Our friend the Scrawny Stubfoot Toad is a critically endangered harlequin frog from Colombia, once considered extinct but rediscovered in 2016! Breeding populations are being maintained and in 2025 the St. Louis Zoo released nearly 500 toads back into the wild! (photo by Saint Louis Zoo)

A dark brown toad with yellow-green spots! They have a long nose with a rounded tip! They are sitting on a mossy rock!

Our friend Rhinella kuka lives in Bolivia and is named after the Quechua word "kuka", which is the name of the coca plant from which cocaine is extracted! They were described as a new species just a few years ago! (photo by Martinez-Diaz M)

A greenish-brown toad sitting on a rock! They have very rough looking skin, somewhat large parotoid glands, and visible eardrums! They have small patches of rusty red color! They have a sharp-looking nose with a very slight ridge that runs around their eye!

Our friend Melanophryniscus simplex is a Brazilian redbelly toad that is known for producing toxins that not only make them bad to eat but also help prevent parasites and bacterial infections! (photo by Lucas Fernandes Langer)

A black toad with very rough and bumpy skin, with a very light brown face! The bottoms of their feet are bright red! They are sitting among a bunch of small rocks, some of which are red or green colored!

Our friend the Asmara Toad is one of only two known bisexual polyploid species of toads! That means they have more than two paired sets of chromosomes! They are named after Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea! (photo by Marius Burger)

A greenish brown toad with large, symmetrical black splotches and a thin light-brown line running down the middle of their back! They are covered in lots of large, warty bumps! They have large parotoid glands!

The genus of our friend the Mandailing Puppet Toad, Sigalegalephrynus, is derived from "Sigale Gale," which are are life-sized wooden puppets used by the indigenous Batak people of Indonesia during special funeral rites for people without living children! (photo by Erin N. Smith)

A slender brown toad with skin covered in lots of small spiky bumps! They have long, slender legs and large eyes! They have lighter brown patches on their back and very light stripes down their sides!

Our friend the Cundinamarca Toad lives in Amazonian Colombia and nearby areas in Venezuela! They have often been confused with other similar toads from Ecuador and Peru! They are easily identified by their pink or yellowish patches on their groin! (photo by K. Santamaria)

A brown toad with dark brown sides, sitting on a rock at the edge of water! They have bumpy skin and large parotoid glands!

Our friend Fea's Short-legged Toad is a relatively rare toad who grows to nearly four inches long and has short, stout legs! They spend most of their time hiding in riverside burrows but like to come out during rainy nights! (photo by Ian Dugdale)

A very wide, brown toad half burrowed into mud and leaves! They have a very wide mouth! They have mostly smooth skin but have large spikes above their eyes, the largest of which look like tiny horns!

Our friend the Convex-tailed Horned Toad is a great example of Asian horned toad, with crests creating large pointy "horns" on their head! They live on Mount Tianping and the neighboring Houhe Nature Reserve in China! (photo by Amaël Borzée)

A flattened looking brown toad with heavy looking legs and long fingers and toes with round pads on the end! They have a crest extending from the tip of their nose and down to their parotoid glands that forms a sharp point above their eyes! They have large eyes with a vertical pupil!

Our friend the Gollum Toad lives in the Endau-Rompin National Park at the southern end of the Malay Peninsula! Their call is a low, raspy, coughing sound similar to the description of Gollum's voice in the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings! (photo by John Sullivan)

A rough-skinned brown toad with a creamy white belly! They have a think white stripe running from the tip of their nose and down their back, and some wide dark brown stripes on their legs! They have large, warty bumps on the side of their belly and a row of warty bumps down their side!

Our friend the Pombali Toad was once considered a separate species, but in 2012 a genetic study proved that they are a hybrid species created by interbreeding between the species Rhinella ornata and Rhinella crucifer! (photo by Ronald Péret)

A brown toad with their back to the camera! They have large ridges from the tips of their nose and around their eyes, large parotoid glands, and small visible eardrums! They have symmetrical black marks down their back, wide black stripes on their sides, and a thin brown line down the center of their back!

Our friend the Binchuan Horned Toad lives on Mount Jizu in northern Yunnan, China! They are a member of family Megophryidae, also known as Goose Frogs! (photo by David M. Hillis)

A brown toad sitting on a bright green leaf! They have somewhat rough looking skin covered in lots of tiny bumps and also have a few larger bumps down their sides! Their face is darker than their back, and there is a thin black line separating their face from their back!

Our friend the Common Spadefoot lives in a huge area extending from Central Europe to Western Asia! They are also known as the Garlic Toad, because when they are scared they excrete a chemical that smells like garlic! (photo by Christoph Moning)

A mostly smooth-skinned toad sitting among small plants with purple flowers! The toad has a somewhat satisfied look on their face!