Frog Watch

Here it is the first week of August and I would say we are long over due for a big rain. So far this summer I have only seen one red-spotted toad at night in front of my house. The place that they go to breed in an arroyo about a 1/4 mile away, is full of red-spotted toads after heavy rains, but not yet this year. I am always amazed when I find one since I know that to reach my house they have to climb over a 100 foot tall earthen dam. The little rain we have had has greened up some of the vegetation nearby which is important to insects and a good sign for the toads. When they emerge from their hiding places in burrows dug by other animals and under large boulders, they are going to need a good supply of insects to see them through another year.

A small pool of water is not enough for spadefoot toads. A heavy rainfall that seeps at least 3 feet below the surface is needed to wake them up from where some have been sleeping for a year or more.

I live in the foothills of the Franklin Mountains and too far from the river to see Woodhouse’s toads. This toad is much larger than a red-spotted toad and looks more like the American toad that many people are familiar with in the eastern part of the country.

The Woodhouse’s toad in El Paso prefers riparian areas near the Rio Grande and the Franklin Canal. At the Zoo we sometimes find them in grassy areas near the canal. From time to time they will breed in the spider monkey moat. Below are two pictures of a pair of Woodhouse’s toads breeding in the moat laying strings of eggs. To protect the eggs from drying out the eggs are laid in a continuous jelly envelope with from 17-25 eggs per string. Females can lay up to 25,000 eggs and tadpoles metamorphose in 1-2 months.