Spadefoot Toad

True Wild Life | Spadefoot Toad | There are two main types of spadefoot toad, those that live only in North America and those that live in Europe, Northern Africa and Western Asia. The spadefoot toad is an amphibian and anurans. Anurans are frogs and toads. Spadefoot toads are rarely seen because of their unusual habits. They are usually found in Western North American deserts like the Mojave, Chihuaha, and Sonoran. Normally this would be a problem for an amphibian, but spadefoot toads are able to deal with the hot and dry weather as spadefoot toads spend most of their time underground.

The spadefoot toad is a burrowing species of toad and they use their large front feet to make tunnels in the sand. Spadefoot toads are able to spend weeks underground but will come to the surface at night time after heavy rain when the air is moist, so that they can feed. Spadefoot toads are omnivorous animals and have a primarily vegetarian diet when they are young. As the spadefoot toad gets older, they begin to eat large invertebrates such as snails, grasshoppers and caterpillars.

The spadefoot toad tadpoles develop very quickly. They can also dig holes and bury themselves until the next desert rain, when they will spawn and turn into the larger, rounder adult toads.

Spadefoot toads generally live between 3 and 12 years but are prey to a number of larger predators. Birds and birds of prey can pick out an unsuspecting spadefoot toad from the sky above and snakes often hunt them on the ground. Fish are the primary predators for the smaller and more vulnerable spadefoot toad tadpoles.

Marine Toad

True Wild Life | Marine Toad | The marine toad (also known as the cane toad or the giant toad) is a species or terrestrial (land-dwelling) toad that is natively found throughout Central and South America. The marine toad is one of the world's true toads and is often used to eradicate pests from sugar-cane (hence it's name). The marine toad is generally found in the subtropical forests of Central and South America, where despite it's name, spends it's life entirely on the land. The marine toad has also been introduced to non-native regions as a form of pest control for crops.

Marine toads tend to be around 15 cm in length although much larger individuals have been recorded. Marine toads are known to have poison glands which ensure that it has toxic skin. This means that if another animal ate the marine toad, it's quite likely that it would lead to near, if not fatal, consequences. Along with being used to control agricultural pests, the marine toad also has a variety of other uses to humans around the world. Traditionally, tribes people in South America would milk the toads for their toxin (called bufotoxin), which was then used as arrow poison. There are also suggestions that the toxins produced by the marine toad may have also been used as a narcotic by the local people.

As with numerous other toad species, the marine toad is a carnivorous animal, primarily surviving on a diet of insects. Due to their large size however, marine toads have also been known to hunt slightly bigger animals including rodents, reptiles, birds and even other amphibians. Due to it's relatively small size, the marine toad is preyed upon by a number of different species within it's natural environment. Caimans, snakes, rats, eels, opossums and various birds of prey are all predators of the marine toad.

Like other amphibians, the marine toad undergoes the incredible transformation from a water-bound tadpole to a ground-dwelling adult in a matter of months. Like it's adult counterpart, the marine toad tadpoles are also highly toxic to any animal that eats them. Today, the marine toad populations are thriving around the world due to the artificial introductions of the marine toad to many islands in the 1900s. Since then, the marine toad has become a pest in many of these countries as their ruthless nature poses a serious threat to native species.

Fire-Bellied Toad

True Wild Life | Fire-Bellied Toad | The fire-bellied toad is small to medium-sized species of toad that is found naturally across mainland Europe and northern and central Asia. The fire-bellied toad is most commonly known for the brightly-coloured markings on its body, which are predominantly found on the underside of the fire-bellied toad. The fire-bellied toad is found close to water in a variety of different habitats. Forest, woodland, temperate rainforests, marshlands, swamps and even farmland, often provides the perfect home for the fire-bellied toad. The fire-bellied toad also spends a great deal of time in water from tiny freshwater, mountain streams to large slow-flowing rivers and lakes.

There are eight different species of fire-bellied toad found throughout Europe and Asia. Despite varying slightly in size and colour, the different species of fire-bellied toad all look fairly similar having bumpy skin, webbed toes and eyes on the top of their heads. The different species of fire-bellied toad of so similar that two in particular are able to interbreed and produce fertile offspring. The skin colour of the fire-bellied toad depends on the species but can range from brown to yellow, to green, to orange and even white. The skin of the fire-bellied toad is known to be toxic to some animals including humans.

The fire-bellied toad is a carnivorous animal as the fire-bellied toad has a diet that mainly consists of small invertebrates like bugs and insects. The fire-bellied toad is able to catch its prey by shooting out its long, sticky tongue which grabs onto the insect and pulls it into the open mouth of the fire-bellied toad. The fire-bellied toad is also known to eat spiders, larvae and the odd worm. Due to its small size, the fire-bellied toad has numerous predators within its natural environment. Foxes, cats, snakes, lizards and birds are the most common predators of the fire-bellied toad along with some species of large fish. The eggs and tadpoles of the fire-bellied toad also have a number of aquatic predators in the water.

The fire-bellied toad mates during the late spring, when the female fire-bellied toad lays between 50 and 300 sticky eggs onto a plant stem or leaf that hangs over the water. The eggs of the fire-bellied toad are joined together and are known as toadspawn, but it can take a couple of years before the fire-bellied toad tadpoles have full transformed into adult toads.

Common Toad

True Wild Life | Common Toad | The common toad is generally brown in colour but colours on the skin of the common toad can range from black to green to yellow. The skin of the common toad, as with other toad species, is permeable and has a rough appearance.

The common toad (also known as the European toad), is a large-sized species of toad that is found throughout Europe. Although the common toad is not found in Iceland or some areas of the Mediterranean, the range of the common toad extends all the water to Siberia and into Northern Africa.

The common toad is most active in wet weather and is most commonly found in areas close to water such as woodlands, forests, marshes and meadows. The common toad is also a nocturnal animal, spending the daylight hours resting and hunting by night.

The common toad is an carnivorous animal, and the diet of the common toad therefore only consists of other animals. Insects are the primary source of food for the common toad, as they are caught when in the air by the long sticky tongue of the common toad. The common toad also feasts on other invertebrates such as worms and spiders.

The common toad has a number of predators within its natural environment, mainly due to its relatively small size. Grass snakes, hedgehogs, foxes, cats and birds all commonly prey on the common toad.

The female common toads lay their eggs in the water rather than on the land, in long strings known as toadspawn, The common toad tadpoles hatch into the water where they begin the process of metamorphosis which turns them from tadpole into an adult common toad.

African Tree Toad

 
True Wild Life | African Tree Toad | The African tree toad is a small species of toad found in the forests of central Africa. Today, little is still known about this tiny amphibian and the constantly decreasing population numbers of the African tree toad are making it increasingly difficult for us to learn more about them. The African tree toad is found distributed across it's natural central African range in countries such as Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, possibly Central African Republic, and possibly Republic of the Congo.

There are two known subspecies of African tree toad, which are the African tree toad and the Bates' tree toad. Both African tree toad species are of similar size and colour but tend to differ in the geographical regions which they inhabit. The natural habitats of the African tree toad are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and heavily degraded former forest, where there is a plentiful water supply. The African tree toad is generally dark to light brown in colour, with white patches on it's belly and like other toad species, the African tree toad has slightly webbed feet which aid it's semi-aquatic and tree climbing lifestyle.

The African tree toad is a carnivorous amphibian that shoots it's long, sticky tongue out of it's mouth at incredible speeds to catch and secure it's prey. The African tree toad primarily hunts small invertebrates including insects, worms and spiders. Due to its small size, the African tree toad has numerous predators within it's warm, woodland environment. Fish, birds, lizards, snakes, rodents and larger amphibians like frogs and toads are all common predators of the African tree toad.
 

Little is really known about the reproduction of the African tree toad besides the fact that female African tree toads lay up to 200 sticky eggs in small bodies of water, which are then guarded by the male African tree toad until they hatch into tadpoles. Today, the African tree toad is a rare and highly endangered species with only a handful thought to be left in the African forests. Habitat loss caused by deforestation and rising pollution levels are thought to be the two main causes in the African tree toad's decline.