Sounds of Bufo woodhousii woodhousii - Rocky Mountain Toad

(=Anaxyrus woodhousii woodhousii)

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Advertisement Calls

An advertisement call is the most well-known call of a toad. It is produced by a male during the breeding season to attract females of his own species. It also serves an agressive function to defend his calling site by warning rival males of his presence. Toads usually make the calls around bodies of water that are suitable for breeding and egg laying. These calls can be heard during the evening and at night, and sometimes during daylight at the peak of the breeding season.

The advertisement call of the Rocky Mountain Toad sounds like a muted sheep or calf bleating, or a snore, lasting 1 - 4 seconds. Calls are made from dusk to dawn from quiet waters of ponds, streams, irrigation ditches, and marshes.

This is a very short recording of one call from a single male toad calling at night in Riverside County. Insects are heard in the background.

This is a 15 second recording of an advertisement chorus of a small group of toads, calling at night from the bare edges of an irrigation pond in an orchard in Riverside County, California in August. Insects are heard in the background.

This is a 65 second recording of a large group of Rocky Mountain Toads calling at night in Riverside County (shown below.)

This is a 29 second recording of an advertisement chorus of many Rocky Mountain Toads, some close, some in the distance, calling at night in late May from the edges of a small lake surrounded by sagebrush and agricultural fields in Franklin County, Washington (shown below.) Insects and wind noise are heard in the background.

Waveform and Sonogram

This is a recording of one repetition of the advertisement call of a Rocky Mountain Toad recorded at night in Riverside County. The image on the right is a visual representation of this call. Click on it to see a larger image. Click here for information about how to read the waveform and sonogram images.

Release Calls

A release call is produced by a male toad or an unreceptive female toad when a male toad or other animal gets on its back and grabs its sides in the position used for mating or amplexus. It's a toad's way of saying "Get off my back! Let go!"

This is a 9 second recording of the release calls of a male toad from Riverside County. Insects and advertisement calls are heard in the background.

Short Videos

A short example of a male giving one advertisement call at night on a pond in Franklin County, Washington.	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.

	A Rocky Mountain Toad gives a release call when he is picked up.

You can listen to more recordings of Rocky Mountain Toads on this cd:

Carlos Davidson - Frog and Toad Calls of the Pacific Coast - Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology

and on the cd that comes with this book:

Lang Elliott, Carl Gerhardt, and Carlos Davidson - The Frogs and Toads of North America - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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