Featured Animal: Common Toad

The common toad (also known as the European toad), is a large-sized species of toad that is found throughout Europe. Although the common toad is not found in Iceland or some areas of the Mediterranean, the range of the common toad extends all the water to Siberia and into Northern Africa.

The common toad is generally brown in colour but colours on the skin of the common toad can range from black to green to yellow. The skin of the common toad, as with other toad species, is permeable and has a rough appearance.

The common toad is most active in wet weather and is most commonly found in areas close to water such as woodlands, forests, marshes and meadows. The common toad is also a nocturnal animal, spending the daylight hours resting and hunting by night.
The common toad is an carnivorous animal, and the diet of the common toad therefore only consists of other animals. Insects are the primary source of food for the common toad, as they are caught when in the air by the long sticky tongue of the common toad. The common toad also feasts on other invertebrates such as worms and spiders.

The common toad has a number of predators within its natural environment, mainly due to its relatively small size. Grass snakes, hedgehogs, foxes, cats and birds all commonly prey on the common toad.

The female common toads lay their eggs in the water rather than on the land, in long strings known as toadspawn, The common toad tadpoles hatch into the water where they begin the process of metamorphosis which turns them from tadpole into an adult common toad.