Fire-bellied Toad

It is called a toad, but the frog and toad labels are informal and do not mark a real biological division. A fire-bellied toad belongs to the genus Bombina, part of an ancient group that sits well away from the true toads of the family Bufonidae. It has warty, toad-like skin and a squat build, but it also spends far more of its life in the water than a typical true toad, has partly webbed feet, and lays its eggs in loose clumps attached to underwater plants rather than in long strings. So it is a toad by common name and appearance and a distinct old lineage by ancestry, neither a true toad nor a true frog.

The unken reflex, named from the German word for these toads, is the defensive display of a fire-bellied toad and some related amphibians. When seized or seriously alarmed, the toad stiffens and bends its body sharply upward at both ends, lifting its chin and its hind end and often curling its forelimbs back over its head with the palms turned outward. This posture hides the drab back and presents the predator with the bright orange or red and black markings on the throat, belly, palms, and soles all at once. Combined with the noxious skin secretion, the flash of warning colour is usually enough to make a bird or snake drop the toad and avoid the pattern in future.

Their skin secretion is an irritant rather than a strong poison. On human skin it does little, but if it gets into the eyes, nose, or mouth it causes burning, watering, and discomfort, so the practical advice is to wash your hands before and after handling one and to keep them away from your face. The secretion can make a dog or cat that mouths a toad drool heavily and feel sick, though it is rarely dangerous. For the toads' sake, handling should be kept brief and hands should be wet and free of soap and lotion, because their permeable skin absorbs whatever is on your fingers.

The oriental fire-bellied toad is hardy, small, day-active, long-lived, tolerant of ordinary room temperatures, and happy in a simple half-land half-water tank, which makes it one of the easiest amphibians to keep, and it will often breed with only a slight seasonal cooling and a rise in water level. Most animals in the trade are still wild-caught in northeast Asia, which is a concern both for wild populations and because wild toads frequently carry parasites and the amphibian chytrid fungus, so captive-bred individuals are preferable where they can be found. The European species are protected across much of their range and are not generally available.