Time for toads to emerge from their winter homes
Quick, if I say "tadpole," I bet you say "frog." Around here, not all tadpoles become frogs. Some become toads, and they are coming out right about now. First, let's separate these two types of amphibians.
Both frogs and toads have tailless bodies with short front legs and larger hind legs. With these hind legs, frogs leap while toads walk or hop. Frogs have smooth, moist skin while toads have drier, warty skin. The most common toad in Northern Illinois is the American toad, which can be found in virtually all forest and prairie habitats.
This species comes in a variety of colors, ranging from tan to reddish brown to gray or olive. Most toads have dark, rounded spots on their backs. This cryptic coloration can make them hard to see, which is good if they're trying to avoid being eaten. But not so good if they're trying to avoid getting stepped on.
Another reason you might find one between your toes is that toads are primarily nocturnal. At night, they forage for slugs, snails, worms, centipedes, spiders, plus many types of insects. They capture prey with a quick flick of their sticky tongues, using their front feet to push larger meals into their toothless mouths.
Should a predator try to shove a toad into its mouth, they might regret it. When threatened, a toad will hunch its body into a rounded form with its nose lowered. This position, combined with the toad's inflated body, makes the toad difficult to swallow. It also uses its large parotoid glands, which are behind each eye.
These glands produce whitish secretions of steroidal chemicals that can cause illness to small mammals that try to chew on a toad.
Now, should you pick up a toad and feel something wet, don't worry. As a toad typically urinates when grabbed, you're feeling urine not poison. Also, handling toads will not cause warts.
Despite their array of chemical defenses, toads are still eaten by other animals, including herons, hawks, raccoons, skunks, and snakes. Toads are likely to be caught while looking for food.
When they're not foraging, they will bury themselves in moist soil, leaf litter, or under logs. Toads dig a shallow burrow with their hind feet and then back into it.
It is from such burrows, dug deeper for the winter, that toads are emerging.
Soon, you will hear a favorite sound of spring, a chorus of male toads emitting a pleasing musical trill. Their combined efforts can result in a loud amphibian symphony.
The symphony is regularly heard at cattail marshes. Such shallow waters are favorite toad breeding grounds. Other sites include ditches, flooded fields, or slow-moving streams.
During fertilization, the female will lay from 2,000 to 20,000 eggs, which are released in two gelatinous strings. These egg strings are attached to aquatic vegetation or submerged branches. In a brief time, from two days to two weeks, thousands of new tadpoles will be swimming in the marshes.
In any event, I hope you come across a toad this spring.
As Theodore Roethke wrote, "I'm sure I've been a toad, one time or another. With bats, weasels, worms … I rejoice in the kinship."
• Mark Spreyer is executive director of the Stillman Nature Center in Barrington. Send your questions and comments to him at stillnc@wildblue.net.