Great Basin spadefoot facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Great Basin spadefoot |
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| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Spea
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| Species: |
intermontana
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The Great Basin spadefoot (Spea intermontana) is a type of toad found in North America. These toads are usually gray, olive, or brown and grow to be about 3.8 to 6.3 centimeters long. They are special because they have learned to live in very dry places.
Great Basin spadefoots have a hard, shovel-like "spade" on each back foot. They use this spade to dig burrows in the ground. They spend a lot of time in these burrows when the weather is cold or dry. These toads are also clever hunters, eating almost anything they can catch. While young spadefoots (tadpoles) have many enemies, adult toads can make a special liquid from their skin that keeps predators away.
Contents
How to Spot a Great Basin Spadefoot
The Great Basin spadefoot is a small toad, usually between 3.8 and 6.3 centimeters long. Its skin is often gray, olive, or brown. You might notice gray lines that form an hourglass shape on its back. Unlike some other toads, its skin is smooth, not bumpy.
A key feature is the sharp, wedge-shaped spade on the inside of each back foot. This is what gives them their name! They also have a small bump, called a glandular boss, between their eyes. Their eyes look like a cat's, with pupils that are thin lines in bright light but become round at night. Each upper eyelid has dark brown spots.
Where They Live
Great Basin spadefoots live in many different places. These include forests with pine and juniper trees, open shrublands, and grassy areas. They can even be found in deserts and at high elevations, up to 2,600 meters (about 8,500 feet) above sea level. You might also see them in farm areas.
These toads are found across a wide area. Their home range stretches from southern British Columbia in Canada, through parts of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. They live throughout Nevada and most of Utah. You can also find smaller groups in California, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming.
Reproduction and Life Cycle
Breeding Habits
Great Basin spadefoots have a very fast and busy breeding season. Many toads gather together to mate. Adult toads live on land, so they have to travel to water sources to breed. They can use permanent water like springs or slow streams, or even temporary pools that form after rain. Breeding usually happens from April to July.
Often, spring rains tell the male toads it's time to come out of their burrows and start breeding. However, Great Basin spadefoots are unique because they can also breed when it's not raining. Scientists are still trying to figure out what triggers breeding when there's no rain. Males arrive at the water first and start making calls to attract females. Once females arrive, everyone tries to mate as much as possible. Males often fight each other to get a mate.
A female toad usually lays 300 to 500 eggs, but some have laid up to 1000 eggs. The eggs are covered in a sticky jelly. She lays her eggs in several spots in the water, attaching them to plants, rocks, or the bottom of the pool. After mating, females go back to their burrows. Males stay and keep calling until no more females arrive, then they also return home.
Tadpole Development
The eggs hatch very quickly, usually in just 2 to 4 days. The tadpoles then grow and change into young toads (metamorphosis) in about 4 to 8 weeks. How fast they grow depends on the temperature and how much food they can find. Growing quickly helps them survive in dry places, as temporary pools can dry up fast.
Young toads are small, about 19 millimeters (0.8 inches) long when they first leave the water. Because they are so small, they can dry out easily. So, they quickly look for shady spots after leaving the breeding pools. Tadpoles can eat different things. Some eat plants, while others might eat meat, depending on what's available in their environment.
Behavior
What They Eat
Adult spadefoots are "opportunistic carnivores." This means they eat whatever small creatures they can find and catch. They have been seen eating many types of insects and spiders. Ants and beetles are some of their favorite foods. They are not picky eaters and will try to eat anything they can overpower.
Adult toads hunt mostly at night or during light rains in spring and summer. Interestingly, spadefoot tadpoles can look different. Some tadpoles have large mouths, while others have smaller mouths. The large-mouthed tadpoles can even eat other smaller tadpoles!
How They Protect Themselves
Adult Great Basin spadefoots can be hunted by animals like rattlesnakes, coyotes, and owls. Young tadpoles face dangers from mud turtles, skunks, raccoons, crows, and other snakes. To protect themselves, adult spadefoots can release a special liquid from their skin. This liquid can cause a burning feeling if it gets into human eyes or nose. It also helps to scare away predators.
Digging and Hiding
Great Basin spadefoot toads are very good at living in dry areas. To avoid drying out, these amphibians dig burrows in the ground. They use the hard, shovel-like "spade" on their back feet to dig. They spend long periods in these burrows when the weather is cold or dry.
These toads can even get water from the soil around them. As the soil gets drier, their bodies make more urea, which helps them pull water out of the soil through a process called osmosis. When summer rains arrive, the spadefoots come out of their burrows.
Young and adult spadefoots usually leave their burrows at night, especially when it's raining or humid enough for dew to form. In studies, spadefoots have been seen digging shallow burrows in wet soil. Then, as the soil dries, they dig deeper, sometimes 0.7 to 1.2 meters (2 to 3 feet) down. In the wild, some spadefoots have been found as deep as 4.6 meters (15 feet) underground! Each toad usually digs and uses only one burrow, returning to it after hunting or mating. They don't use plants for cover when they are out looking for food.
Spadefoots gain a lot of fat in the summer. They become inactive, or dormant, in the fall and winter. This dormancy seems to be triggered by how long the days are. They might wake up in spring when their burrow gets more moisture. If there's a drought, spadefoots can stay dormant for a very long time. They slowly use up their fat reserves during this time. If spring rains don't come, females might even reabsorb their eggs.
See also
In Spanish: Spea intermontana para niños
