62: Red-spotted 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. Before we start with today’s animal, I want to emphasize that biological classification as understood by western society has its roots in racism, sexism, and transphobia – here’s a good explainer about why.
The Red-spotted Toad (Anaxyrus punctatus) comes to me at a great time, because I just watched an episode of the Mandalorian featuring the incredible closed caption line, “Frog Lady speaks in Frog” and I’m going to be pondering that for days. And although they aren’t jabbering about their delicious eggs in “Frog”, the Red-spotted Toad is remarkable in its own way. It is perfectly adapted to life in its habitat – the desert southwest of the USA and northern Mexico – including the southwest of Colorado. The toad can survive losing up to 40% of its body weight in moisture, a level of desiccation that would kill humans, who become very sick after losing 10%. The toads find water by walking across soil, using their back feet to feel for moisture. When they come upon it, they press their bodies to the ground in order to absorb it through their skin.
The desert also has an impact on their reproduction. Females lay individual eggs instead of clumps that most frogs do, and the tadpoles mature very rapidly – about 16 to 20 days - in order to take advantage of ephemeral pools of water. In contrast, the boreal toad takes about 3 months to do the same.