Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Eastern Narrow-mouthed Toad

Gastrophryne carolinensis

Description:

Eastern narrow-mouthed toads are not really toads at all (whoa!), but instead are microhylid frogs. They have very small, pointy heads, and short arms and legs (unlike "normal" frogs, which are a different family of frogs). These guys are great at hiding, as their mottled brown/gray/tan coloration blends in with leaf litter. They are small frogs to begin with, and will hide underneath leaves and branches, or beneath hanging vegetation when in the water. Males have a distinctive "eeeeeeee" (somewhat nasaly monotone) call. Although microhylids, North American Gastrophryne lack the brightly colored and patterned bellies of their Central and South American relatives. Mostly, these guys will have whitish bellies with dark specks or flecks.

Habitat:

Eastern narrow-mouthed toads are typically found in areas with standing water (can be flooded grasslands, or small forest ponds, and even roadside ditches). Even when no water is immediately adjacent, they can be found in moist microhabitats such as underneath rotting logs or fallen branches, and under piles of leaf litter. This one was found at Dewey Wills WMA, in the bottomland hardwood forest, beneath the branch in the photo. I turned the branch over to get a photo, and then replaced it so the frog could stay there without too much disturbance.

Notes:

This frog was observed while collecting data for my masters project.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

No Comments

sunswimer02
Spotted by
sunswimer02

Alexandria, Louisiana, USA

Spotted on May 17, 2013
Submitted on Aug 25, 2013

Related Spottings

Eastern Narrow-mouthed Toad Eastern Narrowmouth Toad Eastern narrow mouthed toad Eastern narrow mouthed toad

Nearby Spottings

Yellow-bellied Watersnake Gray Treefrog Brown Snake Garden Squirrel
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team