Great Plains Toad

Taxobox
name = Great Plains Toad
status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1
trend = down


image_width = 250px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Amphibia
ordo = Anura
familia = Bufonidae
genus = "Bufo"
species = "B. cognatus"
binomial = "Bufo cognatus"
binomial_authority = Say, 1823

The Great Plains Toad ("Bufo cognatus") is a relatively large species of toad. It ranges from southern Alberta, throughout the western United States, and into northern Mexico.

The great plains toad is grey, brown, and green in color, with darker colored blotching. It can grow to 4.5 inches in length. Its primary diet is various species of cutworms. It prefers grassland habitat with loose soil that is easy to burrow in. Breeding occurs throughout the spring and summer months, most often immediately after heavy rainfall. In dry areas it may only emerge from its burrow for a few weeks when conditions are right, and only at night, but in areas with permanent water bodies and abundant rain it may be active all day. [Grismer, L. L. (2002). "Amphibians and Reptiles of Baja California". Los Angeles: University of California Press, 69.] It has a very loud, harsh mating call.

The toad is predated by the plains garter snake, "Thamnophis radix". It uses chemoreceptors to sense chemical cues left by the snake.

References

* (2004) The history of a Nearctic colonization: Molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of the Nearctic toads ("Bufo"). "Evolution" "58": 2517–2535.
* Database entry includes a range map and justification for why this species is of least concern
* [http://www.zo.utexas.edu/research/txherps/frogs/bufo.cognatus.html Herps of Texas: "Bufo cognatus"]