Western toad
A stout, warty toad that walks instead of hopping, with poison glands behind each eye, ranging from lowland ponds to mountain lakes across the Cascades.
Western toad at a glance
Anaxyrus boreas WEST-ern TOHD; Anaxyrus boreas is an-AX-ih-rus BOR-ee-us
- Type
- Amphibian · toad
- Diet
- Insectivore
- Size
- Adults run about 2 to 5 inches long, roughly the length of a deck of playing cards stood on end.
- Lifespan
- Females of at least 10 to 11 years old have been recorded in the wild.
- Conservation
- Least concern
Eats ants, beetles, bees, spiders, sowbugs, grasshoppers
It sits still on the ground or at the mouth of a shallow burrow and waits, flicking out its tongue at ants, beetles, bees, spiders, sowbugs, and other small invertebrates that wander within reach.
Should you worry?
Harmless to touch, but the two glands behind its eyes ooze a thick white poison meant to deter predators, so wash hands after handling and don't touch your eyes or mouth first. Never handle one with sunscreen, bug spray, or lotion on your hands, since a toad's skin absorbs whatever is on your skin.
A toad crossing the gravel at Crater Lake does not hop. It walks, one deliberate stride after another, low and steady, like a small, warty commuter with somewhere to be. That gait alone is enough to tell you it is a toad and not a frog before you ever see the pale stripe down its back or the two bumps behind its eyes.
Months before it learned to walk, it was one of thousands of black dots packed into the shallows of a mountain lake or a lowland pond, a tadpole school so dense the water can look briefly solid from the shore. Most of those dots are not strangers to each other. They are brothers, sisters, and cousins from the same clutch of up to 15,000 eggs, schooling together rather than scattering, and by the time they grow legs and climb out onto dry ground, a lot of that closeness is gone. Some of the young toads that leave a Cascades pond travel 12 km, about 7.5 miles, over rock and root before they settle anywhere else.
The two bumps behind an adult’s eyes are parotoid glands, and they ooze a thick white poison that keeps most predators from trying twice. It will not hurt you the way it hurts a coyote’s mouth, but it can sting your eyes if you rub them after handling one, so touch the toad and not your face. At Mount Rainier, where it is the only toad species in the park, biologists still call it rare and mysterious. Find one crossing a trail at dusk, and you are looking at an animal the park itself is still trying to figure out.
Did you know?
- It is the only toad species known to occur in Mount Rainier National Park, and park biologists consider it relatively rare and mysterious compared to the park's frogs and salamanders.
- A single female can lay around 15,000 eggs at once, usually in long strings wrapped around underwater plants.
- After leaving their birth pond, young toads have been tracked moving up to 12 km, about 7.5 miles, overland across rugged terrain.
Common questions
Are western toads dangerous to touch?
No, but the white poison from the glands behind its eyes can irritate skin or eyes, so wash your hands after touching one and don't touch your face first.
Why does a western toad walk instead of hop?
It's just how this toad usually gets around: a slow, deliberate walk rather than a frog's springy hop, though it can still jump a good distance if it needs to escape something.
What do baby western toads look like?
Tiny black tadpoles that gather by the thousands into dense, dark schools made mostly of brothers, sisters, and cousins, near the shallow edges of ponds and mountain lakes.
Where do you find western toads in the mountains?
Near still water (ponds, lake edges, wet meadows) for breeding, though adults wander widely afterward, sometimes miles from where they hatched.