I bought the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians last week to help me identify the different reptiles and amphibians that I take pictures of. The toad in the pictures below looks like the Canadian toad Bufo hemiophrys, but they do not range this far east. The only toad in the book listed in my area is the American toad Bufo americanus, which this guy looks nothing like compared to the picture in the book :( Which is it?

its def not a bufo americanus but i'm not sure what it is. once i get over my hang over if noone has posted i'll look it up in my field guide.


one thign you have to understand with ranges is that they arn't exact. and can vary a great amount from guide to guide. so if your close to the range listed in the guide i'd go with that.

Don't be scared to tell us location :wink:

Don't be scared to tell us location :wink:

I guess that would help :p The picture was taken in the central NY area.

I would say you have a odd melanistic american toad otherwise you found a released non native toad :wink: BTW.... I have seen a fowler's toad on Seneca lake and most range maps say they don't range that far north.

Hey,

I think it is an american toad. Fowler's are differentiated only by morphological differences on the parotoid glands, which here are impossible to judge. Toads are pretty variable, a black american toad is not that difficult to believe.

Erik.

for some reason, i don't think its the color, but there is just something else throwing me off. not sure if its the size of the bumps (forget what they are called), or just the basic body shape looks off. but that might jsut be regional differences fromteh ones i usually see. plus i'm still adjusted to Utah toads :-)

the paratoid glands do look like an american toad however.

I do agree that this is an odd looking toad compared to the fowlers/american in central/northern NJ. I am slowly getting into frogs with my male red eyed treefrog I just got for my female :wink: my goal is 2:3, then black eyed treefrogs are next maybe :D I don't think I will cycle them this winter, but next year......