Black Toad

Anaxyrus exsul

Reptiles & AmphibiansIn the app

The Black Toad’s black skin is dry and warty but considerably smooth for a toad. This toad is almost solid dark above with white and tan speckles. It has a white midline…

How to identify

The Black Toad’s black skin is dry and warty but considerably smooth for a toad. This toad is almost solid dark above with white and tan speckles. It has a white midline down its spine from head to its rump. Its belly is usually light and greatly blotched with black. They grow to about 50 mm in total length. They have no cranial crest and their parotoid glands are oval. The male’s throat is pale and less spotted, unlike the females. Lastly, its young are olive coloured.

Range

The Black Toad lives in a very restricted space. Their range is in the disperse oasis in the Deep Springs Valley of Inyo County, California.

Habitat

This toad lives in watercourses, irrigation ditches and marshes formed by water flow from springs enclosed by cold desert steppe. They tend to be more active during warmer months. Overwinter, they are underground near their native springs. These toads walk instead of hop and they’re never far away from water. Their diet is made of remains of beetles, ants and lepidopteran larvae. Their breeding happens during mid-March and late April or early May. It could also go into June. About 10 – 100 breeding pairs assemble in marsh waters. Their eggs most times hatch in about 4 – 5 days.

Similar species

Anaxyrus baxteri: Also known as The Wyoming Toad. They grow up to about 56 mm in total length. They are usually dark brown, grey or green with small dark markings on their underside. Anaxyrus californicus: Also known as The Arroyo Toad. They usually grow to about 50 – 75mm in total length. They are greenish, grey or salmon on the dorsum. They also have a light-coloured stripe across the head and the eyelids. Anaxyrus cognatus: Also known as The Great Plains Toad. They grow to about 51 – 114 mm in total length. They are grey, brown and green with darker coloured blotching.