Amphibians
Fowler's Toad
Anaxyrus fowleri · also called Fowler toad
On a warm summer night by a sandy lakeshore in the eastern United States, a chorus of toads is calling, and among the long musical trills of the American toads is a harsher sound, a short nasal bleat like a bawling lamb or a crying baby. That is Fowler’s toad, the American toad’s plainer, sand-loving look-alike.
Overview
Anaxyrus fowleri is a medium-sized true toad, usually 5 to 8 cm long, brown to grey or brick-red with a scatter of dark blotches on the back and warty, dry skin. It lives across the eastern United States wherever the soil is loose and sandy, plus one small outpost on the Canadian shore of Lake Erie, and it feeds at night on ants, beetles, and other small invertebrates.
Telling it from the American toad
The two species overlap across much of the East and look nearly the same, but there are reliable clues. Each dark blotch on Fowler’s toad holds three or more warts; on the American toad, one or two. Fowler’s toad has a plain pale belly; the American toad’s is heavily speckled. And the call is unmistakable once heard: a flat, unmusical bleat rather than a sweet trill. Where the ranges meet, the two hybridise, producing in-between toads.
A toad of the sand
Fowler’s toad is tied to sandy, well-drained ground — dunes, floodplains, sand prairies, lakeshores — where it can dig in backwards by day and emerge at dusk. It breeds later than the American toad, from late May into July, in shallow, warm water.
Status
Fowler’s toad is Least Concern and common across the sandy core of its range. It has declined at the edges, though, where shoreline development and the loss of open sand near breeding pools remove the habitat it depends on, and the isolated Ontario population is Endangered.
Fowler's Toad: common questions
How do you tell Fowler's toad from an American toad?
Three features do most of the work. First, look at the dark blotches on the back, which in Fowler's toad each contain three or more small warts, while in the American toad each contains only one or two. Second, check the belly, since Fowler's toad is pale and nearly plain underneath, sometimes with one dark chest spot, whereas the American toad has a heavily mottled, spotted belly. Third, listen, because Fowler's toad gives a short, flat, nasal bleat, and the American toad gives a long, musical trill. In areas where the two overlap they hybridise, so some individuals fall between the two and cannot be named with certainty.
Is Fowler's toad poisonous?
It has the same defence as other true toads, a pair of large parotoid glands behind the eyes that ooze a milky, bitter toxin called a bufotoxin when the animal is bitten or roughly handled. This can cause a predator, or a curious dog, to drool heavily, retch, and paw at the mouth, and in a small dog a big dose can be more serious, so a pet that mouths a toad should be rinsed out and watched. The toxin is not absorbed through unbroken human skin, so handling a toad briefly and washing your hands afterward is safe. Toads do not cause warts.
Where and when are Fowler's toads active?
They are creatures of warm weather and sandy ground. Fowler's toads emerge in late spring, once nights are reliably mild, and stay active through the summer, spending the day burrowed backwards into loose soil or hidden under debris and coming out at dusk to feed. Breeding happens a little later in the year than the American toad, from late May into July, with males gathering at the shallow edges of ponds, flooded fields, lake margins, and slow streams to call. Outside the breeding season the toads disperse into surrounding woods, dunes, and fields, sometimes well away from water.
Why is Fowler's toad declining in some areas?
At the northern and coastal edges of its range the species is sensitive to the loss of the specific habitat it needs, open sandy areas near shallow breeding water. Shoreline development, beach stabilisation, the hardening of lake and river edges, off-road vehicle traffic on dunes, and the succession of open sand to dense forest all reduce suitable ground. Road mortality during breeding migrations, pollution of breeding pools, and in Canada a very small, isolated population all add risk. Across the core of its US range in sandy country the toad remains common, so the concern is regional rather than global.