COMMON TOAD
This is a large and beautiful toad, with the larger females reaching up to 180mm here in the Mediterranean. They are smaller the further north you go. Their appearance is bulky, and they have warty skin. The eyes are a wonderful copper colour with horizontal pupils. The back feet are partially webbed, and their overall colouration varies with some individuals being grey, brown, yellow, green and occasionally black. The belly is pale with a marbled pattern. They are mostly nocturnal, hiding by day in leaf litter or under rocks and logs.
The common toad can be found in mountain meadows, sand dunes, marshes, forests and your garden, but they require water to lay their twin egg-stands. When it comes to mating, the males are not fussy and will grab any moving object, leading to them pairing with frogs, newts and even fish. The female lays her eggs in 5m lengths containing up to 8000 eggs. A common toads diet is anything that moves within range of its long sticky tongue, but they mostly eat beetles. The female in my photos was found by my dog on an evening walk. I ran home to grab my camera and she posed beautifully.
