"Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder.."

Fowler Toad (Anaxyrus Fowleri)

Class: Amphibia

Order: Anura

Family: Bufonidae

Genus: Anaxyrus

Species: A. Fowleri

 The Fowler Toad is usually a brown, grey, olive green and rust red in color with darkened warty spots.. If the toad has a pale sripe on its back it is an adult .. Like the one shown above..
Their belly is whitish except for one dark spot which I was unable to get a picture of as I didn't want to disturb of cause any distress to this Amphibian ..
Toads are usually about 5 to 9 cm in length..

Reproduction:
When the male finds a mate the pair will initiate "amplexus" and up to 7,000 to 10,000 eggs will be fertilized.. They hatch within 2 to 7 days...

This toad has many predators that include species of Snakes, Birds and other small mammals.. It secretes a compound from the warts on its back that is distasteful to its predators and sometimes is lethal to small mammals who try to feast on this toad..
The toad is also known to play dead which I did not experience in my observation of this amphibian but as I said I tend to try to cause as little distress by only observing it or carefully locating it into an open container that I can observe it better in..

These toads love open woodlands, sand prairies , meadows and beaches but they definitely love back yards here in Michigan..
The adults of this species of Toad eats insects and other small terrestrial invertebrates, It will not eat earthworms, Unlike the American Toad the tadpoles of an Fowler Toad scrapes algae and bacterial mats from rocks and plants using the tooth like structures in its mouth..

This toad is at risk in locations of Ontario, Canada..

I have to say out of the many frogs and toads I've seen since I was little and playing in mud that I've observed this has to be the best one I've come across, It's spotting on its back created a perfect camoflauge in my backyard for this animal, It made it very hard for me to keep track of it while I kept track of observing the smaller, Fowler Toad that was not far behind to what I assumed would be its mother (pictured above)..
I also noticed when I had located into a large bucket we have in our backyard that this amphibian was a magnificent and determined climber, Its sticky toes clung onto the sides of the bucket and it eventually climbed its way out of the bucket..
Unfortunately the photographs of the smaller Fowler Toad did not turn out ...

Some information I studied off of Wikipedia and the others were my own observations...

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