Where do toads... "do their business"? Also, diet & growth question.

[Lacibeth]

No clue? I just know it's an american toad, how do I tell if it is an "a. b. halophilus"?

Anaxyrus boreas halophilus is a primarily Californian (and a smidge Nevada, maybe a smidge Oregon) subspecies of the boreal toad Anaxyrus boreas. The american toad is Anaxyrus americanus and I would agree that's the toad you have.

ETA: There are three recognized subspecies of A. americanus: A. a. americanus Eastern american toad; A. a. charlesmithi Dwarf american toad found in the southeastern US; and A. a. copei Hudson bay american toad which is very rare.

[Poly]

Anaxyrus boreas halophilus is a primarily Californian (and a smidge Nevada, maybe a smidge Oregon) subspecies of the boreal toad Anaxyrus boreas. The american toad is Anaxyrus americanus and I would agree that's the toad you have.

Haha, most likely, considering I live in Northern Canada!

[Poly]

ETA: There are three recognized subspecies of A. americanus: A. a. americanus Eastern american toad; A. a. charlesmithi Dwarf american toad found in the southeastern US; and A. a. copei Hudson bay american toad which is very rare.

Any idea how I can correctly identify my toad from your above list?

I googled a Hudson Bay toad, and the images I got looked JUST like my toad, it looks more similar to the Hudson bay toad than the Eastern american toad, because my toad contains a small ammount of reddish pigments, and many black stripes to it's rear. What do you think?

[Lacibeth]

Any idea how I can correctly identify my toad from your above list?

The dwarf american toad is way out of your range (think Alabama) so we can cross that off the list. The Hudson bay is a rare species and from what I understand tend to be right around the southeastern portion of the bay. My guess is that you probably don't have one of those. Some of the members here are in academia and might have acces to whatever paper was published regarding the subspecies that should have identifying characteristics. I don't actually know what the distinctions are between the hudson bay and the regular ol' eastern american toad.

[Poly]

Oh, alright, well thanks for the information.

[Poly]

I seen images of Hudson Bay toads found in southern Quebéc, and I am only 40kms for the Quebéc border, so I don't think we could rule out HBTs either.