Facts About the Common Toad

Common Toads are nocturnal amphibians that grow to about 15 cm (6 in) in length, and can live up to eleven years. Females grow larger than males, and the toads in the south grow smaller than the ones in the north. During the breeding season, males grow pads on their fingers that are used to hold females. When a male frog is single, it emits a loud, shrill sound to attract a female.

An animal that hunts and eats toads is the grass snake. This snake can eat a toad because it is not affected by the toad's only defense, which is discharging a very foul tasting liquid from its skin. For some unknown reason, it does not care how the toad tastes, and eats it even if it squirts the foul tasting liquid into its mouth.

A poison called Bufotoxin has similar effects to the liquid that toads and frogs excrete. When toads are eaten, the toxin they excrete can irritate human skin and is dangerous to smaller animals (such as dogs).

The feet of the toad are webbed because they spend most of their time in lakes. Toads, when they grow up, usually go back to the lake where they were spawned, and live there for most of their lives.

They live in the wild, usually for ten to twelve years, but in captivity they can live up to fifty years. The age of toads can be discovered by counting the number of yearly growth rings in the bones of their phalanges.  

If toads live in a place where there is very little light, they will have darker shades of skin than toads that live in bright areas..