American Toad: All American with a hop
The American toad is found throughout Canada and the Eastern US. It is made up of 3, count them 3, subspecies: Eastern American Toad, the dwarf American toad, and the Hudson Bay Toad. These toads are thought to have come from an INVASION, oh wait… wrong podcast… an invasion of toads from South America prior to the formation of the isthmus of Panama land bridge. That’s a long way to travel for such a small toad. Although they are sometimes confused with the Fowler’s Toad they are in fact a different species. Let’s hop to it.
History and Environment:
The history of the American Toad is TOAD-A-LY wild. No one knows for sure but it is believed these toads hopped on over before the development of the Isthmus of Panama and have been spreading all over the Eastern U.S and Canada since. My favorite thing about them though is their history with the DoD. These Gnomes… uh… toads sorry for some reason are attracted to military establishments and can be found all throughout the bases and can cause issues during training. So much so that it has genuinely raised concerns for the DoD itself.
These little guys require a semi-permanent source of fresh water such as a pond or even your pool, like alligators but less bitey. They need shallow water for breeding and dense patches of vegetation for cover and for hunting, thankfully not humans though. They also need a supply of insects. An interesting fact about these hoppy little guys is that their skin color changes due to number of factors that including their habitat, humidity, stress, and temperature.
Current Status:
These toads are quite literally the best that they can be doing. They are doing so well that there are no current or historical conservation efforts because they don’t need it. If it wasn’t for the fact they are so useful to the environment they would be considered pest with how many of then there are.
Well, this time all I have to say is that we are NOT ruining their habitats. No matter how hard we try we can’t do it. Why is that I hear you asking, because they adapt so well to nearly any environment. Not as well and the cane toad, but still they can hang in there. They will live basically anywhere: garden ponds, swimming pools, hot tubs, bird baths, in hedge rows near a water source, around flower beds, and pretty much anywhere with access to fresh water. So good job humans… I guess.
And Then Humans:
Nothing, we have done nothing to these toads. They simply just go with whatever we do and thrive in it. Just to show how adaptable they are one of the “habitats” they can be found in is the grass clipping in your yard. Unless we just outright make the land unlivable they will thrive, and maybe even in unlivable conditions they might be ok.
Despite our best efforts were are simply not ruining their habitat. I don’t know if I should congratulate us for not ruining it or say good job to the little toads that could for adapting so well.
Oops! I Can Fix That!
Well we don’t need to fix anything except maybe the DoD need to come up with some sort of anti-toad defense system. But these toads are fine even with humanity’s destructive tendency’s.
As I have said we are not really doing anything to ruin their environment. So basically if we can avoid taking over ALL of their natural habitat I think we can call it a day and say we did something helpful. That’s all I hav to say about that.
Sum It Up Buttercup
I think we can say that we are doing fairly well for the American toad or at least it is doing well. The adaptability of this little hopper is a large contributor to its thriving. However we are also not completely wiping out entire populations OR destroying large portions of their habitats. All in all I want to end this episode by saying good job humanity, we did something not wrong.