A Ponder of Western toads

[Ron]

Bufo boreas...hands down my favorite amphibian EVER. I believe down there you have the subspecies B. b. halophilus. Just a couple things to add:

Pseudacris regilla don't need year-round water to survive (the classifiers keep going back and forth as to whether or not they should be a "chorus" frog or a "tree" frog). As long as they can stay somewhere damp, they should be okay.

If you decide to raise up any toadlets/froglets, I would HIGHLY recommend not raising them in or near any other non-native or tropical species in order to prevent cross-contamination of possible foreign parasites and pathogens...which could then be inadvertently introduced into the local environment when you release them.

[BlacklightHunter]

Just an update, I’ve been active on Field Herp Forums and they’ve answered all my Q’s. The tadpoles turned out to be Spea hammondii (Wstern Spadefoot toads). This was beyond my dreams as these are a threatened species and very hard to find! I’ve only seen them on occasion at the Wild Animal Park while doing field research there. It’s hard to believe that I have 2,000 + in my own tank! Don’t worry about cross-contamination, I’m being as carfull as CRES to keep these guys away from chitrid. The white ones that I mentioned turned out to be the first recored albino hammondii! I have a friend of mine who’s a head researcher at SDZICR who’s coming over on Saturday to photgraph and take some of them to include in the next edition of his Field Guide To Amphibians and Reptiles of the San Diego Region.

[Kurt]

Cool. I hope that you do post some pictures.

[BlacklightHunter]

here's the whole story with pictures:

http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/...hp?f=5&t=29792

[John]

Pity we got no picture love here .

[Kurt]

I love the albinos. Really cool.