Amatola toad facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Amatola toad |
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The Amatola toad (Vandijkophrynus amatolicus) is a special kind of toad. It belongs to the family called Bufonidae. This toad lives only in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. You can find it in the Winterberg and Amathole Mountains. Its scientific name comes from the "Amatola Range," where it was first found.
What Does the Amatola Toad Look Like?
Amatola toads are quite small. Female toads can grow up to about 38 millimeters (about 1.5 inches) long. Their backs are usually dark grey or olive-brown. They often have a clear, pale stripe running down their back.
These toads have special bumps behind their eyes called Parotoid glands. They also have many small, flat bumps, or warts, on their backs. Young Amatola toads, called tadpoles, are brown.
Where Do Amatola Toads Live and How Are They Protected?
Amatola toads live in high-up, moist grasslands. They need these grassy areas to survive. When it's time to have babies, they gather in shallow, temporary pools of water. These pools can even be puddles formed in vehicle tracks after rain.
These toads are known to come together in large groups to breed. For a while, from 1998 to 2009, scientists couldn't find any Amatola toads. Many people worried they had disappeared forever. But in 2011, an adult female and many tadpoles were found again! This happened in a place that had been searched before. It seems that finding them depends on the weather. They usually appear after heavy rains, which is when they breed.
The biggest dangers to the Amatola toad are things that harm their grassland home. These include planting too many trees (afforestation), too many animals eating the grass (overgrazing), and fires. Also, vehicles driving through the breeding areas during the rainy season can hurt the tadpoles and adult toads.
