I have to admit that I didn't think I'd ever spend any time writing about toads or other amphibians calling Arizona home. Of course I've seen frogs in some of the shallower ends of our ponds and lakes and I've noticed tadpoles in seasonal streams. And I might have noticed toads jumping in a field on a camping trip to the White mountains many years ago. But it's reptiles, another of the animal kingdom's five most well-known classes of vertebrates, with their vast number of lizard, snake and turtle varieties that seem to thrive in and dominate this arid state. In fact the common horny toad isn't even a toad, he's a horned lizard. So even our amphibians are actually reptiles!
Well it actually turns out that amphibians that includes all the true frogs, toads and salamanders are well represented by more than two dozen unique species in the Grand Canyon state. And they don't all rely on the damned and managed lakes and waterways that provide most of our water supply.
For example, toward the end of an especially wet monsoon season in the Prescott area I almost stepped on a toad that was quite well camouflaged on a granite boulder. What I believe is specifically a canyon treefrog was more than a hundred feet away from a seasonal creek that had just been trickling after a rainstorm. At the same time he was close to an outdoor water spigot that gets turned on regularly in the summer for car washes and gardening.
Maybe the seasonal accumulations of water in the rocky landscape provide enough water for this species to survive. Like us he's adapted to the extreme variations of temperature and climate and somehow found a permanent supply of water near my home. But I might have to make sure I don't have a leaky pipe feeding it in the dry season.
Well it actually turns out that amphibians that includes all the true frogs, toads and salamanders are well represented by more than two dozen unique species in the Grand Canyon state. And they don't all rely on the damned and managed lakes and waterways that provide most of our water supply.
For example, toward the end of an especially wet monsoon season in the Prescott area I almost stepped on a toad that was quite well camouflaged on a granite boulder. What I believe is specifically a canyon treefrog was more than a hundred feet away from a seasonal creek that had just been trickling after a rainstorm. At the same time he was close to an outdoor water spigot that gets turned on regularly in the summer for car washes and gardening.
Maybe the seasonal accumulations of water in the rocky landscape provide enough water for this species to survive. Like us he's adapted to the extreme variations of temperature and climate and somehow found a permanent supply of water near my home. But I might have to make sure I don't have a leaky pipe feeding it in the dry season.
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