Amphibians
Woodhouse's Toad
Anaxyrus woodhousii · also called Woodhouse's toad
Woodhouse’s toad thrives almost anywhere it turns up, from natural river floodplains and grassland to farm fields, irrigation ditches, and city parks, making it one of the more genuinely adaptable native toads in the central United States. That same flexibility extends to its love life, readily interbreeding with several related toad species wherever their ranges and breeding pools overlap.
Overview
Woodhouse’s toad, Anaxyrus woodhousii, is a widespread, habitat-flexible amphibian identified by a long, prominent bony crest between the eyes. It hunts a broad range of invertebrates at night and breeds in almost any available water, from ponds and ditches to slow river backwaters.
An adaptable toad, and a frequent hybridiser
Its tolerance for both natural and human-altered landscapes has made it one of the more resilient toads across its range. Overlapping calls and breeding habitat with several related Anaxyrus species mean hybrid populations are common wherever ranges meet.
Status
Least Concern — common and widespread, thriving across a genuinely broad mix of natural and human-altered habitat throughout the central United States.
Woodhouse's Toad: common questions
Why does Woodhouse's toad hybridise with other toad species so often?
Because its breeding calls, breeding season timing, and choice of breeding habitat overlap considerably with several closely related Anaxyrus toad species across parts of its wide range, opportunities for cross-species mating arise more frequently than in toads with more distinct breeding requirements or narrower geographic overlap with close relatives, resulting in hybrid populations that can show a mix of physical traits from both parent species in these contact zones.
What makes Woodhouse's toad so adaptable compared with other toads?
Its tolerance for a genuinely broad range of habitat types, from natural river floodplains and grassland to agricultural fields and urban parks, combined with its willingness to breed in a wide variety of water bodies including temporary pools, irrigation ditches, and slow river backwaters, together give the species considerably more flexibility to persist across varied and even human-altered landscapes than many more habitat-specific toad species can manage.
How can you identify Woodhouse's toad by its cranial crest?
The species has a notably long, raised bony ridge running along the top of the head between the eyes, and the specific length, shape, and prominence of this crest, considered alongside other features such as overall colouration and parotoid gland shape, helps distinguish Woodhouse's toad from several similar toad species found in overlapping parts of its central United States range.
Is Woodhouse's toad dangerous to pets?
Like other true toads, Woodhouse's toad has parotoid glands that secrete a bitter, mildly toxic substance when the toad feels threatened, which can cause drooling, discomfort, or mild illness in a dog or other pet that mouths or bites the toad, though it is not generally considered highly dangerous to a healthy adult pet in a brief encounter, and pet owners are typically advised to rinse a pet's mouth with water if significant contact occurs.