The name Colorado River Toad is a bit misleading as this species is widely distributed in the Sonoran and parts of the Chihuahua desert. It is the largest of Arizona’s toads exceeding a pound and a half in weight and seven inches in length without its legs extended.
Heavy and robust, a large Colorado River Toad is an impressive animal. Their prodigious gurf is matched only by their appetite. Like most toads, they are eating machines, consuming nearly anything they can fit into their mouths and choke down.
Colorado River Toads are very long lived and have documented reaching ages of over 25 years.
Considering that they rely on standing water for breathing and one of the most erred habitats in North America, this longevity is a tremendous advantage.
Most amphibians lacking both tooth and claw are relatively helpless creatures and rely on agility and speed to avoid would be predators. Unfortunately for most toads, they are a short on those two commodities as they are on good looks.
Such a large and seemingly helpless more so should be an easy mark for a predator but not so.
Located behind their eyes and on their hind limbs are large, work-like poison glands called paratoid glands. These glands produce a powerful neural toxin called bufagin which is capable of paralyzing and even killing an animal much larger that itself.
When the toad is molested, the glands ooze a white viscous fluid that once ingested, can be fatal to an attacker.
So toads and the Colorado River Toad in particular are free to go about their business relatively free of the attentions of predators.
Surprisingly, their quiet mating falls seems a mismatch for such a large toad. Their call, a soft, frothy thrill is often completely drowned up by the other amphibian species that are calling from the same pool.
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