Photo Description
I found this little hopper while walking on a trail in the park. I am pretty sure it is a southern toad. It is hard to tell when they are this young. This little toad is a newly metamorphosed toadlet and will have to wait 2 to 3 years before it can reproduce and start the process over again. Female toads will usually lay between 2500 to 4000 eggs in long, coiled, jelly-like strands in wetlands, ditches, and even tire ruts. Eggs will hatch in a few days and become tadpoles and within a month they undergo metamorphosis into little toadlets like this one. Toads usually emerge in great numbers and stay near the water source where they were hatched. I am sure there were many more around me that I did not see. Toads this size are a favorite meal for the newly hatched hognose snake, which is another completely different story.
Photo Location
Carolina Beach State Park, North Carolina
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