Giant Toads

The other night when we came home from an outing, one of Bermuda's giant toads was making its way across the driveway. They are as big as a dessert plate and can be 6 inches long...not your average garden-variety toad. The giant toad (Bufo marinus) was introduced to Bermuda in 1875 as a way to help combat cockroaches. And, indeed, the toads eat just about everything from insects to pet food. The male toads will also try to mate with anything that looks remotely like another large toad...even a shoe. In Belize, these amphibians are called "Spring Chicken," although I don't think I want to know why.

Our yellow lab, Molly, had an interesting encounter with one these critters when she discovered one in the garden. As soon as I said, "Molly, no!" she picked up her quarry in her mouth, no doubt thinking that I would take the forbidden "prize" away from her. Within seconds, she spit out the toad and her mouth began to foam. While Abby and I watched in astonishment, Molly grew three foam beards of saliva in quick succession: a new one grew as the previous one fell off. It turns out that Bufo marinus has enlarged poison glands on each shoulder for protection against predators and when the poison made contact with Molly mouth tissue, HER defenses kicked in to rid her body of the poison. It was like watching "Wild Kingdom": "Here in the savannah, the creatures who live here, from the giant toad to the yellow lab, have developed specialized protections to ensure their survival."

Here is a photo of Abby gingerly touching a giant toad on its side. Abby likes reptiles and to us, it looked like simply a much larger version of the toads we often found in our garden in Gorham, Maine. We didn't find out about the poisonous shoulder glands until the "Wild Kingdom" incident with Molly.