Common Toad (Bufo bufo) Species Guide: Appearance, Diet, Habitat, Behavior, Stats, And Conservation Status

Species Guide: Common Toad (Bufo bufo)
Family: Bufonidae

APPEARANCE

The Common Toad has olive-brown skin. Their heads are broad with wide mouths, and very bulbous-looking eyes. They have rather attractive horizontal slit pupils framed by copper irises. Their skin is dry and warty, and they have short back legs. They cannot hop like some of their cousins, for example, the Common Frog; instead, they walk along.

There are two bulbous patches just behind their eyes called parotid glands. These contain a substance called bufotoxin, a foul substance excreted by the toad to deter would-be predators.

Females tend to be larger than males, and also browner in color.

Diet

The Common Toad has long been considered the gardener’s friend. Their diet consists predominantly of invertebrates such as slugs and snails. They will opportunistically eat larger prey such as slow worms and small rodents.

HABITAT

The Toad can be found in numerous habitats including wetlands, woodland, pastoral, heath, and moorland including relatively high altitudes. Toads are so adaptable that they are cited as one of the most prolific amphibians across the European continent¹. From a UK standpoint, they can be found virtually anywhere on the mainland.

Behavior

For the majority of the year, the Common Toad keeps hidden away, particularly during the day. They are most active at night, which is when they feed.

During the breeding season, toads congregate in favored breeding grounds. The males arrive first, sizing each other up in preparation for the females’ arrival. The males grasp a female using specially developed nuptial pads on their fingers. The female lays out jelly-like strings of eggs in rows of two into the water. These gradually form into tadpoles, which hatch and undergo a metamorphosis, gradually turning into toads over several months. They then disperse onto land and become predominantly terrestrial. Toads hibernate during the winter.

Common Toads have a soothing, repetitive croak.

Did You Know? Toads have been associated with witchcraft throughout human history, an association immortalized in one of the opening scenes of Shakespeare’s Macbeth in 1623.

“Toad, that under cold stone, Days and nights has thirty-one; Sweltered venom sleeping got, Boil thou first i’ th’ charmed pot!” 

Biometrics

Did You Know? The oldest recorded Common Toad lived for 40 years! The second oldest recorded lived to 36 years.

NATURAL PREDATORS

Common Toads are on the menu for multiple animals including hedgehogs, mink, otters, grass snakes, herons, and crows.

Conservation Status

Loss of habitat has played a large part leading to a gradual reduction of the number of Common Toads. Much of this is attributable to the development of housing on sites that were historically used by them. They are still, however, classified as Least Concern from a conservation viewpoint.

Global
Conservation Status

REFERENCES

1. Dorcas, M.E. and Gibbons, W. (2011) Frogs : the animal answer guide. 1st ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. [Accessed 03/04/2025]
2. Dodd, C.K. (ed.) (2023) Amphibian ecology and conservation : a handbook of techniques. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Accessed 03/04/2025].

CITATIONS

1. Arnold, Nicholas; Denys Ovenden (2002). Reptiles and Amphibians of Britain and Europe. Harper Collins Publishers. pp. 73–74. ISBN 978-0-00-219964-3. [Accessed 03/04/2025] ↩︎