Category Archives: spadefoot toads

Spadefoot toads on the move!

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What a crazy spring it has been! One day every pond and vernal pool is full of water and then it is dry…and then it is full of water again! Imagine being one of the little critters trying to survive out there.

Vernal pools by definition dry up some time during the year but the animals that use vernal pools no doubt hope they will dry up later, not sooner. Most, such as wood frogs and spotted salamanders have adapted by having a short time before full metamorphosis occurs. Compare the few weeks it takes these species to the several years a green frog or bull frog could take.

Check out these spadefoot toad tadpoles. They are being given a bit of a headstart by a local Audubon Sanctuary with special permission from the state since they are a threatened species in Massachusetts. The Cape is pretty much their northernmost outpost and they have a hard time surviving here.

013Each of these tadpoles is about an inch long….not very big! You can see that their legs are ready to pop out and within a week or so of this photo these little guys were on all four legs and absorbing their tails. They also go from breathing through gills to breathing through their skin and tiny lungs.

Although spadefoot toads can be found in pine barrens and other areas here on the Cape they seem to have settled into dune areas. They can actually dig down 8 feet into the sand which keeps them from overheating in the summer and freezing during their winter hibernation, called brumation. Here is what a typical dune habitat with a vernal pool looks like.

010A closer look shows lots of weedy vegetation and sand.

003You can’t see them but there are hundreds if not thousands of baby toadlets in this photo….here’s one I picked up for a few seconds.

002Toadlets is really what these little guys are called but when frogs metamorphosize they are not called froglets. You can call them that if you want,though, I won’t tell.

Can you see the toadlets in this photo? They are there….

009How about in this one?

007Pretty good camouflage, huh? They need it! These little toadlets are easy targets for all sorts of hungry birds and animals and very few will actually make it to adulthood, even with thousands emerging this past week. Sobering, isn’t it?

Later in the season other toadlets will emerge from area ponds and all will face the same challenges. If you happen upon an emergence it won’t hurt to check it out but please don’t be tempted to try and keep one at home or to carry it around. Enjoy it for a minute, let the kids check them out and know you participated in a very cool event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spadefoot toadlets!

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Spadefoot toads spend most of their time underground and are rarely seen by the average person so getting a peek at these tadpoles and little toadlets is a real treat.

Early each spring the toads leave their underground spots to head toward vernal pools in the dunes like these at Sandy Neck in West Barnstable. They will even lay their eggs in what are barely big puddles, hoping that the water will hang around long enough for their young to survive.

The eggs are laid in water and can be found in gelatinous globs like the one seen below. The eggs are the little dark spots.

Ian Ives of Mass Audubon’s Long Pasture Sanctuary is involved in a program that is headstarting some of these rare and endangered toads to hopefully give them a better chance of overall survival here on the Cape. To do this he has raised some tadpoles that are now healthy and happy toadlets, and yes, that is a word. Our larger frogs grow quite a bit bigger before metamophosizing into adult frogs but our toads, including American, Fowler’s and Spadefoot, all leave the water while still quite small, and are called toadlets. Wood frogs, which are dependent on vernal pools also change quickly from tadpole to frog and are called froglets. That’s your handy tidbit of amphibian trivia for the day.

These tadpoles are about an inch long. If you look closely at the top one you will see it’s tiny back legs beginning to form.

These little guys have arms and legs but still have quite a bit of tail to be absorbed before they are ready to hop out of the water.

Here is a little spadefoot toadlet that has just been out of the water for a few weeks. It is living in an aquarium for the moment and is being fed lots of tiny insects.

This picture isn’t great but it does show the little holes the toadlets dig and you can see one of the toads emerging in the top center part of the photo.

Most people would never see these tiny guys so personally I think it is pretty cool that we can see them like this, thanks to Mass Audubon and Ian Ives.