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American x Fowler's Toad

Anaxyrus americanus x fowleri

Description:

Average size, grumpy toad with dark, red-ish tan with creamy color underneath.

Habitat:

Near public restrooms.

Notes:

Another critter at the bathroom! It was raining at the time and this toad was on the move. After the shoot I relocated him to the edge of the forest. (He was very grumpy, and didn't like that I was holding him.)

1 Species ID Suggestions

AshleyT
AshleyT 10 years ago
American x Fowler's Toad
Anaxyrus americanus x fowleri


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4 Comments

ConorSheaWing
ConorSheaWing 10 years ago

I can tell it's fairly common, considering at breeding time for toads they don't really care who's who when it comes to that. Thank you for your help!

AshleyT
AshleyT 10 years ago

I'm really glad that made sense haha. It is cool! It is fairly common for them to hybridize, but on this site I haven't seen many uploaded that are hybrids. And I showed you in my suggestion how to put the names in the fields, it can be a little confusing with the hybrids!

ConorSheaWing
ConorSheaWing 10 years ago

All of that makes sense. I can see exactly what you're talking about, and I think it's cool that I found a hybrid! (:

AshleyT
AshleyT 10 years ago

This guy actually looks like a hybrid. So a not so good character to look at is the number of warts in each dark spot. If you look in photo 3, this guy only has a few dark spots (highly variable between both species), and in those dark spots he only has two warts. American toads have 1-2 warts, and Fowler's toads have 3+ warts in the largest dark spots.
But the better character to go off of is the paratoid glands and cranial crests. The crests are the raised parts that go from inbetween the eyes, and make a square corner and go behind the eyes. The glands are the large, oval things that come up to the crests. In American toads, the crests and glands are not supposed to touch, except by a spur on just one side, like the left side looks. Then the other side isn't supposed to touch at all. But in Fowler's toads, both glands and crests are supposed to touch.
So with warts you have American toad, and with crests/glands you have American/Fowlers. So this guy is both. Did that make sense?

ConorSheaWing
Spotted by
ConorSheaWing

Pennsylvania, USA

Spotted on Aug 31, 2013
Submitted on Sep 3, 2013

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