Nature Note: It’s a Toad’s Life

All that chirping Marianne talked about recently leads to this: baby toads. Toads are AMPHIBIANS, which means they are in a category of animals that spends part of its life developing in the water and part of its life on land.

When frogs (including toads) chirp and sing, the male attracts the female, and she lays her eggs in the water. The eggs develop into TADPOLES, which don’t look much at all like the adult version of the animal! Tadpoles MUST be in the water. They swim, eat, and grow, then gradually their froggy legs appear and they start to look more like miniature frogs.

These young toads in the video below are not too far past their tadpole stage. They are just starting to hop around away from the water and disperse into the forest. Look for lots of these in June. They are SMALL, so you have to look closely for movement on the ground.

Toads are HUNTERS, and even at this size, they are looking for small insects to eat. As they grow, they seek out larger and larger prey and will even eat smaller toads! They are also prey for a variety of other Russell Forest animals like birds, snakes, raccoons and opossums. Because so many things eat them, they have A LOT of babies: hundreds of tadpoles can develop from one egg-laying session.

Alabama toads secrete a mild toxin that makes them taste bad, so many are able to survive because they are not eaten. Listen for frogs and toads singing after dark and know this means that tadpoles will be coming soon!