SPECIES SUMMARY PAGE

Length: 

• Male: to about 2.5 inches; Female: slightly larger (B161).
• Normally 7-8cm, occasionally to 10cm, females larger than males (B159).

Head: Parallel parotid glands (B159).

Eye: Greenish yellow (B160, B161); silvery-gold (B159).

Legs: Relatively short, toes no more than half webbed (B159, B160).

Skin: Warty (B159, B161).

Female/Male:

• Dorsal:: grey/olive green,/brownish with darker markings (brown/green/red warts) and yellowish stripe central from snout caudally to end of body.
• Abdomen: whitish, with dark green spotting.
• (B159, B160, B161).

Breeding Males:

• Throat:

  • Bluish/mauve (B161).
  • Vocal sac under chin, inflated when calling (B161).

Feet:

• Three inner fingers of forelimbs have grasping pads (B161).
• Paired tubercles under longest hind toe (B159).

Tadpole: Similar to those of common toads, darker than those of frogs and smaller than similar-age frog tadpoles or common toad tadpoles (B161).

Similar species: .Differentiated from Bufo bufo - Common toad by smaller size, parallel parotid glands and yellow stripe down centre of back (B159).

World: Western and central Europe eastwards to western Russia.(B159).

Britain: Scattered, local distribution, including south-west Ireland (B159, B161).

HABITAT:

• In north of range (including Britain) found in sandy areas.
• In remainder of range, wider variety of habitats.
• Up to 200m in Iberia.
• Remain near pond. Much of time is spent in crannies, or in burrows in soft sand.
• (B159, B160, B161).

Activity:

• Active swimmers.
• Walk on land, and run, are also able to hop.
• Poor swimmer.
• Burrow in soft soil/sand.
• Mainly nocturnal.
• In summer spend daytime in burrows, emerge at night to feed.
• Head-down, hindquarters-up posture when alarmed.

• (B159, B160, B161).

Predators:

• Crows, magpies, herons
• Rats, hedgehogs, stoats and weasels
• Some Natrix natrix - Grass snake.
• (B160)

Skin shedding: --

Longevity: More than 15 years (B160).

BREEDING

Place: in shallow water, sometimes in puddles near a pond rather than in the pond itself (B160, B161 ).

Age:

Timing: Late March to beginning of August but usually late April to June in Britain (B160); Mid-April to as late as July (B161)

Courtship: Male clasps female, gripping axillae (B160).

Eggs: 3,000 - 4,000 laid in strings; initially in two rows, later in a single row (B160, B161 ).

Tadpole development: Rapid. Tadpole free of egg by about a week after spawning. Develop into toadlets by six to eight weeks. May leave water by early June (B160, B161)

HIBERNATION:

• Late October to late February or early March.
• In burrows or under large stones B161

FOOD:

Adults: Beetles, other insects, worms, spiders, woodlice, small molluscs (B160, B161).

Tadpoles: initially algae on leaves and stems of plants, later animal food: dead fish, fledglings, tadpoles (B161).

Toadlets:

Feeding: Catch prey on the move (B160).

Organisations (UK Contacts):

• Wildlife and Countryside Directorate, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR)
• Froglife
• Ponds Conservation Trust

Electronic Library (further reading):

• --

General Legislation:

• This species is listed on Schedule 5 (Protected animals) of the LUK2 - Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 of the United Kingdom. (W5.Oct01)

Individual techniques:

• Accommodation of Casualty Amphibia
• Catching and Handling of Amphibia
• Feeding of Casualty Amphibia
• Release of Casualty Amphibia