Scientific Name: Bufo cognatus

Residency: Year-round in Southwest to Southeast Canada, and in Texas, Utah, Arizona, and parts of Mexico.

Diet: Feeds on insects like moths, beetles, flies, and cutworms.

Temporal Activity: Spends most of its time underground. They burrow in the ground by shuffling into the ground with their hind feet, and come out of their burrows about an hour before dusk. The toad is nocturnal, but sometimes during breeding season they are diurnal.

Breeding: Breeds March through September, only after rainfall when the temperature exceeds 12 degrees Celsius. They breed only in relatively clear shallow water. The male initiates breeding by calling out in a harsh explosive clatter, which is almost deafening. The female can lays as many as 20,000 eggs and they hatch within two days. Then tadpoles form and go through a metamorphosis. The new toads will not breed for 3-5 years.

Interesting Fact: When annoyed, this toad?s lungs become inflated, thereby increasing the size of its body. One scientist calculated the toad value in his area to be about $25, because each toad saves a farmer $25 by killing winter cutworms.

Photo: To be added.

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