Toads and Water

[jameson_uk]

We had some fencing replaced a while ago and have had some of the boards lying around on the front drive.

This morning I was moving them to came across quite a large toad. We live on a main road and I am not sure there are any ponds nearby (there is a lake in a nature reserve 1/2 mile away).

Just made me wonder how much water they actually need (presumably it is needed for breeding) and how far they might travel.

 

[mort]

Cool looking chap.

Frogs and toads only really need water to lay their eggs, or at least that's my understanding. It's because the eggs don't have a protective shell and would simply dry up. I don't know how far they can migrate for water but in a local woods near me I find frogs well over a km from their breeding pond.

Haven't seen a toad for years though.

 

[zozo]

½ mile from the water is peanuts for a toad... Even frogs travel much further away from water than that. The common toad (Bufo bufo) as i suspect this is, is also called the generalist in its family. Because of the tadpoles, bitter taste, which the fish and other predators don't like and avoid eating, this toad doesn't care much about in what kind of water it breeds as long it receives some direct sunlight. While other members of this family are much more selective in choosing breeding waters. And this might limit travelling distances for the other family members.

Bufo lives exclusively terrestrial and actually are relative bad swimmers it prefers terrain with dense vegetation grasslands forests etc. and mainly avoids large open spaces. It's also mainly nocturnal and receives enough moist from dew and the air humidity. During the day they usually are dug in hiding in a hole in the soil or under dense leaf litter.

 

[Mick.Dk]

Nice to know about common toad is, that they eat a lot of slugs, including the dreaded Iberian one (=killer-snail in Denmark) that can really destroy your garden. It is considered a blessing to have a toad recide in your strawberry flower-bed (I have several in mine).