Range in California: Red
Dot-locality range map
Listen to this toad:
One short call
More sounds of
Bufo californicus
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Juvenile, Orange County |
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Habitat, Los Angeles County |
Habitat, Whitewater Canyon,
Riverside County |
Habitat (riparian) 800 ft.,
San Diego County |
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Habitat, seasonal creek, Santa Ana Mountains, Riverside County
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Habitat, Mojave River north of Lancaster, Los Angeles County |
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Sign, Riverside County |
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Description |
Size |
| Adults are 1 4/5 - 3 2/5 inches from snout to vent ( 4.6 - 8.6 cm). |
| Appearance |
| Plump and stocky with dry, uniformly warty skin. No cranial crests. Oval, widely separated parotoid glands that are pale toward the front. Pupils are horizontal. Greenish, gray, olive, dull brown above. No stripe down the middle of the back. Warts have brown tips on the tubercles. Usually with a light stripe or patch on the head and eyelids. Whitish below, with no spots or mottling. Male and female throats are pale. Young are pale, often with no dark spots, and tubercles on back are yellowish. Moves by quickly hopping, instead of walking. |
| Voice (Listen) |
| The advertisement call of the Arroyo Toad is a fast musical trill, about 10 seconds, rising in pitch, and ending abruptly. Males call at night from shallow pools of slow-moving streams. Calling is not dependant on rainfall. This call is similar to that of Bufo punctatus - Red-spotted Toad, but has a lower pitch. |
| Behavior |
| Nocturnally active, remaining underground in the daytime, but occasionally seen moving about in daylight or resting at the edge of breeding pools in the breeding season. Active from the first substantial rains in January or February, through August. Parotoid glands and warts can secrete a poison to deter some predators. Others are immune, and will consume toads. |
| Diet |
| Diet consists of a wide variety of invertebrates. Typical of most frogs, the prey is located by vision, then a large sticky tongue is used to catch the prey and bring it into the mouth to eat. |
| Reproduction |
| Mating and egg-laying takes place in streams, not depending on rainfall, from March to July. Fertilization is external. Tadpoles begin as black in color, turning to a lighter cryptic shade to render them almost invisible in the sandy substrate. Unlike all other California tadpoles, they sift the substrate for food, making them extremely dependant on specialized habitat. Larvae reach metamorphosis in 2 - 3 months. |
| Range |
Endemic to California and northern Baja California. Ranges west of the desert in coastal areas from the upper Salinas River system in San Luis Obispo county to northwestern Baja California. Sea level to 3,000 ft. (900 m.)
"The arroyo toad has been recorded at six locations on the desert slope (Patton and Myers 1992): the Mojave River, Little Rock Creek, Whitewater River, San Felipe Creek, Vallecito Creek, and Pinto Canyon." CDF&G |
| Habitat |
| Inhabits washes, arroyos, sandy riverbanks, riparian areas with willows, sycamores, oaks, cottonwoods. Extremely specialized habitat needs, including exposed sandy streamsides with stable terraces for burrowing with scattered vegetation for shelter, and areas of quiet water or pools free of predatory fishes with sandy or gravel bottoms without silt for breeding. |
| Taxonomic Notes |
In 1998 Bufo microscaphus was split into two species, Bufo californicus, and B. microscaphus.
Some sources still list Bufo californicus as a subspecies of Bufo microscaphus, Bufo microscaphus californicus.
This toad has been renamed Anaxyrus californicus, but this nomenclature is not yet standard. |
| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| Absent from 76 % of its historic range. Remaining populations are extremely vulnerable due to specialized habitat needs and the loss or degradation of sandy streamside habitat and siltation of streams from many possible causes including mining, excessive human use such as campgrounds, vehicles driving across streams, grazing cattle, exotic aquatic predators such as fish and crayfish, and urban development. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Bufonidae |
True Toads |
| Genus |
Bufo |
True Toads |
| Species |
californicus |
Arroyo Toad
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Original Description |
Bufo californicus Camp, 1915 - Univ. California Publ. Zool., Vol. 12, p. 331
from Original Description Citations for the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America © Ellin Beltz
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Meaning of the Scientific Name |
Bufo - toad
Californicus refers to belonging to the state of California - the type locality is Ventura County, CA, 1912
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Formerly Bufo microscaphus microscaphus, Arroyo Toador Arroyo Southwestern Toad.
Anaxyrus californicus
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Related or Similar California Frogs |
Bufo boreas boreas
Bufo boreas halophilus
Bufo woodhousii
Bufo canorus
Bufo exsul
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
AmphibiaWeb
SD Natural History Museum
Pasadena Audubon
Stebbins, Robert C. A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians. 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Behler, John L., & F. Wayne King. The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians. Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Davidson, Carlos. Booklet to the CD Frog and Toad Calls of the Pacific Coast - Vanishing Voices. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, 1995.
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The following status listings come from the Special Animals List which is published several times each year by the California Department of Fish and Game.
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Organization
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Status Listing
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| U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) |
FE |
Endangered |
| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
None |
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| California Department of Fish and Game |
DFG:SSC |
California Species of Special Concern |
| Bureau of Land Management |
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| USDA Forest Service |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
G2 G3 |
Imperiled, Vulnerable |
World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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IUCN:EN |
Endangered |
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