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It is a rainy day here in Georgia today, which has me thinking about warmer days when it rains and there are frogs and toads everywhere. So I thought today’s collection tweets could be about toads 1/11
Firstly one of the toads that are most common around our campus is the southern toad (Anaxyurus terrestris). Sadly they aren’t seen very much at the moment because it’s cold, but here are some pictures from a few months ago of one outside my apartment 2/11
Interestingly these toads weren’t very common last year, and I’m not sure why that is? If there are any other herpers in the southern US, did you also notice this? Or any thoughts on why it happened? Please get in touch 3/11
Because they are so common we have lots and lots of these awesome toads in our collection. Here is just a small portion of some of our frogs in the @HerpGSU collection 4/11
Because we have so many in our collection we are lucky to have some rare specimens. One of my favourites that I have found is this albino southern toad, which is clearly different from others even in alcohol 5/11
When these toads metamorphose into baby toads they are incredibly small. Here is a jar of some tiny baby toads (sorry there isn’t anything for scale in the picture, I will include that in the future) 6/11
Another awesome toad that we have in our area are the spadefoot toads. These toads are called spadefoots because they have a hardened appendage on their foot that they use to dig and burry themselves to stay moist when it is too dry 7/11
Spadefoots are easier to find when there is a storm with high pressure and lots of rain. When these conditions are present they are often seen crossing roads. Here is a picture of one I found in 2019 crossing a road during a storm 8/11
Because these are so common around Statesboro and the rest of South Georgia we also have lots of these awesome toads in our collection @HerpGSU 9/11
That is it for today’s insight into some of the specimens in our collection here at @HerpGSU. I think I am going to talk about some snakes on Monday so if there are any specific Georgia snakes you would like to see let me know. Here is a cute little picture until then 10/11
If you want to work with any of our specimens or you want to put in a specimen request, please send me a DM and I can pass on your details to our collections manager and they can get in touch. Have a good weekend 11/11
