European green toad
Bufotes viridis
— Where the name comes from
Bufo is the toad in Latin, and Bufotes is its diminutive, used to separate this group from the common toads; viridis means “green”. The name is apt: on a pale grey back it carries emerald-green blotches with sharp edges, as though somebody had painted them on.
— Facts
- Group
- Amphibians · Amphibia
- Order
- Frogs and toads
- Habitat
- Dunes, gravel beds, quarries, gardens, suburbs, temporary pools
- Range
- Eastern and southern Europe, North Africa, western Asia
- Size
- 6–9 cm, up to 12 cm; 30–100 g
- Diet
- Insects, spiders, earthworms, snails
- Lifespan
- 10 years
— Characteristics
- 01
The call is a long silvery trill, like a mole cricket’s.
- 02
It tolerates brackish water in which no other European amphibian will spawn.
- 03
It breeds in temporary pools that dry out within weeks.
— What sets it apart
It is the European amphibian that has adapted best to us: it spawns in the tanks of building sites, in quarry pools, in abandoned swimming pools, and in many Italian and Central European cities it lives where no natural wetland remains at all. Its tolerance of brackish water and drought lets it use places that would be lethal to a frog, and its recent history is the exception in a group — the amphibians — that is disappearing faster than any other class of vertebrates.
