Common toad

Toads eat small animals.

They catch slugs, snails, worms, spiders and beetles. A toad's sticky tongue shoots out to grab its food. Gardeners are glad to see toads!

Common toads are hunters that come out at night. They eat slugs, snails, worms, spiders, ants, beetles and aphids. A toad creeps up slowly, then flicks out its sticky tongue to catch its meal.

Big toads sometimes eat larger animals, such as harvest mice, slow worms, small grass snakes and even younger toads. Tadpoles are different: they eat algae and bits of plants in the pond.

Adults are nocturnal, slow-stalking predators of invertebrates: slugs and snails make up much of the diet (The Wildlife Trusts), along with worms, spiders, ants, beetles and aphids. Woodland Trust describes toads sneaking up on prey and catching it with a sticky tongue. Woodland Trust lists harvest mice, slow worms, small grass snakes and smaller toads among the vertebrates that large toads occasionally take.

Toads can become sedentary when they find a good food source and may stay in one garden through the summer (Amphibian and Reptile Conservation). Tadpoles eat algae and plant material (Woodland Trust).

Every spring, lots of toads travel to their pond at the same time.

They follow the same path every year. Some people help toads cross busy roads safely.

Common toads are famous for their spring journey. On damp nights, many toads set off together toward the pond where they were born, following the same route year after year.

After about a week of breeding, the adults walk away from the pond again and spend the rest of the year on land. They hide during the day and hunt at night. In winter they rest buried in mud, compost heaps or dead wood, but on a mild day they may come out to feed.

Amphibian and Reptile Conservation describes a strong homing instinct: adults follow the same routes back to ancestral breeding ponds each spring. These mass movements cross roads, and Froglife lists the disruption of migration routes among the main threats.

Outside the breeding season adults are largely nocturnal and solitary, sheltering by day in shallow burrows. Woodland Trust says the common toad overwinters rather than truly hibernating: it rests in mud or compost to save energy but can emerge to forage in milder weather.

Common toads are not rare, but in some places there are fewer than before.

Toads need ponds and safe paths. Garden ponds and log piles help toads.

In 2009 the IUCN listed the common toad as Least Concern, which means it was not in danger of disappearing worldwide. That check was made when scientists still counted some of its close cousins as common toads, so it needs updating. In Britain, toads have been declining, especially in the south.

Toads lose breeding ponds when they are filled in, and busy roads cut across their spring journeys. People help by protecting ponds, building garden ponds and log piles, and carrying toads across roads on migration nights.

The IUCN's global assessment (assessed December 2008, published 2009, Least Concern, stable) was made when Bufo bufo still included Bufo spinosus and other relatives; IUCN now marks that concept as no longer recognized and the assessment as needing an update. It named local threats including drainage of wetlands, deforestation, pollution, farming changes, urbanization and road deaths, with chytrid fungus reported in some Spanish and UK populations.

In Britain, Amphibian and Reptile Conservation reports declines, especially in the southern half, linked to loss of the deeper ponds toads breed in. The species is a priority species under the NERC Act 2006, and Froglife's Toads on Roads project records crossings and supports volunteer patrols.

Toads make a rough, croaky call near ponds.

It sounds a bit like "qwark, qwark, qwark."

Common toads make a rough, croaking call. Froglife writes it as "qwark-qwark-qwark," and Woodland Trust says to listen for croaking near ponds in wet woodland.

The recording on this page was made in Radnor, Wales, on 19 March 1989 by Eric Nobles, and is kept by the British Library, which labels it as common toad calls. Other animals may be heard in the background too.

Froglife describes the common toad's call as a rough "qwark-qwark-qwark," and Woodland Trust suggests listening for low croaking near ponds in wet woodland, where toads gather to breed in early spring.

The recording on this page is from the British Library's wildlife sound archive, catalogued as common toad calls recorded by Eric Nobles in Radnor, Wales, on 19 March 1989. The catalogue does not say whether other animals can be heard in the background.