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Adult, Riverside County |
Adult, Riverside County |
Adult male calling at night from the shore of breeding pond, (shown below) Riverside County |
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Adult, Imperial County near Colorado River north of Yuma |
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Adult, Riverside County |
Adult, Riverside County |
Underside |
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Adult, Imperial County |
Tadpoles, Riverside County |
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Cranial crest between and
behind the eyes |
Elongated paratoid glands
behind the eyes |
Digging Spade on hind foot |
Habitat |
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Breeding habitat - irrigation pond in orchard, Riverside County
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Habitat, agricultural irrigation canal
Imperial County |
Habitat, agricultural rrigation pond, Riverside County |
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| Breeding habitat, Imperial County |
Habitat, Imperial County farmland |
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More pictures of this toad from Washington are on our Northwest Herps page.
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Short Videos |
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360 degrees of toad sitting on a road at night. It wouldn't move, so the camera did.
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Rocky Mountain Toads calling at night on a pond in Franklin County, Washington. |
More Rocky Mountain Toads calling at night on a pond in Franklin County, Washington. |
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A Rocky Mountain Toad gives a release call when he is picked up. |
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Description |
| Size |
| Adults are 1 3/4 - 5 inches from snout to vent ( 4.4 - 12.7 cm). |
| Appearance |
| A large toad with dry, warty skin. Prominent cranial crests, sometimes with a boss between them, which contact the elongated, divergent parotoid glands. Gray, brownish, olive, greenish, yellow above, with dark blotches, a whitish stripe on the middle of the back to the snout, and a network of black and yellow on the rear of the thighs. Below is pale cream or beige, with or withouts dark spots. Young may hve no dorsal stripe. Male's throat is sooty. |
| Voice (Listen) |
| This toad's call sounds like a muted sheep or calf bleating, or a snore, lasting 1 - 4 seconds. Calls from dusk to dawn from quiet waters of ponds, streams, irrigation ditches, and marshes. |
| Behavior |
Nocturnal, remaining underground in the daytime, but occasionally seen moving about in daylight or resting at the edge of breeding pools in the breeding season. This species hibernates from about October to February over most of its range and may also cease activity during the winter in California.
As most toads do for defense, this toad relies on parotoid glands and warts which can secrete a poison that deters some predators.
Typical of most toads, B. woodhousii moves relatively slowly, often using a walking or crawling motion along with short hops. |
| Diet |
Diet probably 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.
Prey is located by vision, then the toad lunges with a large sticky tongue to catch the prey and bring it into the mouth to eat. |
| Reproduction and Young |
Reproduction is aquatic. Fertilization is external. Throughout its range, mating and egg-laying occurs from February to September, usually during or after rains. In California, breeding occurs at least from March through August. (Personal observation.) Males are presumed to reach reproductive maturity in one year, females in two years. Males call from various locations near breeding ponds - from shallow water, on dry shore edge, and on land near water.
Eggs are laid in long strings and attached to vegetation in shallow water.
Tadpoles are black, and often form large aggregations. Tadpoles metamorphose is 5 - 8 weeks.
Hybridizes with many other species. Species in our area that it is known to hybridize elsewhere are B. punctatus, B. alvarius, B. microscaphus, and B. cognatus. |
| Range |
In California, this subspecies is found in the southeast - along the Colorado River, in the Imperial Valley, and north to the Palm Springs area where it may be continuing to expand its range to the west.
Outside of California, it occurs in isolated populations in southern Washington, extreme east Oregon and part of western Idaho, southern Nevada, eastern Montana, North Dakota, south to Texas. The species occurs throughout much of the United States and north-central Mexico. |
| Habitat |
| Throughout its range, this toad inhabits a wide variety of habitats - irrigation ditches, temporary pools, moist meadows, grassland, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, sagebrush flats, woods, desert streams, farms, river floodplains, irrigation canals, irrigated fields and golf courses. In California, mostly found in irrigated agricultural areas, but may be spreading into irrigated areas in the Coachella Valley. Prefers sandy areas. From below sea level to 8,500 ft. (2600 m.) |
| Taxonomic Notes |
Bufo woodhousii taxonomy is undergoing some changes. Some authorities do not recognize any subspecies of Bufo woodhousii, referring to this toad as Woodhouse's Toad. Others recognize several subspecies.
This toad has been renamed Anaxyrus woodhousii woodhousii, but this nomenclature is not yet standard.
Some authors* include the toads inhabiting the southern part of the state with the subspecies B. w. australis (not the subspecies B. w. woodhousii, which we show them to be here.) They also include the toads inhabiting the area near the Nevada border with the subspecies B. w. woodhousii. Old field guides and museum records that include subspecies information, list the southern populations as B. w. woodhousii, but some recent research analyzing advertisement call variation ** has indicated that the southern California toads are more closely related to those in south-central Arizona, which are B. w. australis. (It does seem likely that this subspecies could have entered California through the Gila River drainage.)
* Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Amphibians of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009.
** Brian K. Sullivan, Keith B. Malmos, Mac F. Given. Systematics of the Bufo woodhousii Complex (Anura: Bufonidae): Advertisement Call Variation. Copeia, Vol. 1996, No. 2 (May 16, 1996), pp. 274-280
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| Conservation Issues (Conservation Status) |
| In some areas this toad is benefiting from water impoundments for agriculture where other native species are in decline. |
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Taxonomy |
| Family |
Bufonidae |
True Toads |
| Genus |
Bufo |
True Toads |
| Species |
woodhousii |
Woodhouse's Toad |
| Subspecies |
woodhousii |
Rocky Mountain Toad
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Original Description |
Bufo woodhousii - Girard, 1854 - Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Vol. 7, p. 86
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
woodhousii - honors Woodhouse, Samuel W.
from Scientific and Common Names of the Reptiles and Amphibians of North America - Explained © Ellin Beltz
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Alternate Names |
Bufo woodhousii - Woodhouse's Toad
Anaxyrus woodhousii woodhousii
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Related or Similar California Frogs |
Bufo cognatus
Bufo boreas halophilus
Bufo punctatus
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More Information and References |
Natureserve Explorer
California Dept. of Fish and Game
AmphibiaWeb
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. Corkran, Charlotte & Chris Thoms. Amphibians of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Lone Pine Publishing, 1996.
Jones, Lawrence L. C. , William P. Leonard, Deanna H. Olson, editors. Amphibians of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle Audubon Society, 2005.
Leonard et. al. Amphibians of Washington and Oregon. Seattle Audubon Society, 1993.
Nussbaum, R. A., E. D. Brodie Jr., and R. M. Storm. Amphibians and Reptiles of the Pacific Northwest. Moscow, Idaho: University Press of Idaho, 1983.
Bartlett, R. D. & Patricia P. Bartlett. Guide and Reference to the Amphibians of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii. University Press of Florida, 2009.
Elliott, Lang, Carl Gerhardt, and Carlos Davidson. Frogs and Toads of North America, a Comprehensive Guide to their Identification, Behavior, and Calls. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.
Lannoo, Michael (Editor). Amphibian Declines: The Conservation Status of United States Species. University of California Press, June 2005.
Wright, Anna. Handbook of Frogs and Toads of the United States and Canada. Cornell University Press, 1949.
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.
This toad is not included on the Special Animals List, meaning there are no significant conservation concerns for it in California according to the Dept. 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) |
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| California Endangered Species Act (CESA) |
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| California Department of Fish and Game |
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| Bureau of Land Management |
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| USDA Forest Service |
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| Natureserve Global Conservation Status Ranks |
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World Conservation Union - IUCN Red List
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