39: Couch's Spadefoot Toad

I write to you from Arapahoe, Ute, and Cheyenne land. I am interested in learning about the different animals that live in the place where I was born. I want to mention that biological classification as taught by western science has its roots in racism, sexism, and transphobia – here’s a good explainer about why.

Couch’s Spadefoot Toad (Scaphiopus couchii) is quite the interesting sounding animal – you can listen to a chorus of them here. This animal is a lovely reminder of the diversity and ingenuity of life in the desert. They live in the southwestern USA and northern Mexico, including in southeastern Colorado, where they enjoy sandy soil and mesquite trees.

Toads need water to mate, so they are restricted to the time after big rains, when puddles form in the soil. Females must pair off with males very quickly – often immediately after the rain – and they are choosy about coloration and quality of song, so hopefully the males are keeping everything looking good during the rainy season. Their tadpoles then live in the puddle as it dries. They are the rare toad tadpoles that are omnivorous, eating whatever is around (including their siblings’ and cousins’ eggs) to get rid of their gills as fast as they can.

Their “spadefoot” is a growth on the underside of the hind feet that is used for burrowing into the ground so that they can preserve water and hide from predators.

The “couch” in the name refers to Darius N. Couch, a graduate of West Point who fought in the Mexican-American War, the Second Seminole War, and for the Union Army in the Civil War. From 1853 to 1854 he took a leave of absence from the army in order to travel to Mexico on behalf of the Smithsonian. There he found two species who have Latin names honoring him – this toad and Couch’s kingbird, a flycatcher.