Colorado River Toad

 

Basic Info

The Bufo alvarius is olive green and brown in color with white "wart" bumpy spots on its back legs and near the jaw. Behind its eyes are large parotoid glands which contain a psychoactive poison to ward off predators. The toxin causes intoxication in humans, making it a controlled substance and a hallucinogen. The toad can live up to 20 years. They emerge after summer rains, but spend the rest of the year in hibernation; active from late May-September, but nocturnal during the warm summer months. This particular toad can grow up to 19 cm (7.5 inches), making it one of the largest toads found in the United States.

 

Habitat/Region

The Colorado River Toad is very common in the Sonoran Desert. It can survive in a variety of habitats including: creosote bush desert scrub, grasslands, thornscrub, and tropical deciduous forest in Mexico.

 

Reproduction

Males make a ferryboat-like mating call to females. The females lay large amounts of eggs after mating in available water sources. The tadpoles hatch between 2 days and 2 weeks of being laid.

 

Trading the Toad

The toads are collected or bred primarily in Arizona. They are traded because of the drug they hold in their parotoid glands. People squeeze the gland until it bursts, resulting in a milky substance that resembles rubber cement. The chemical composition is similar to LSD. After extracting the substance, it is left to dry, so it can be smoked later. The drug smoked from the glands is called bufotenine. Illegal trade of the Colorado River Toad is a conservation issue for the species. For example, a man living in Arizona had 62 of these todes at one time. He was arrested for the illegal possession and sale of native wildlife because he had over 10 toads. They can be sold anywhere in the United States. In California, one toad can be sold for up to $10 on the drug market. Unfortunately, not very many arrests are made concerning the abusive and illegal nature of breeding the toad and getting high off its glands. Police are not aware of the trend and are more focused on more mainstream methods of drug use. However, the drug collected from the toad is dangerous because of the wide variation in dosages. Although the Colorado River Toad is not endangered, the illegal collection of drug could damage the toad’s population in the future. This threat is added to the already apparent prejudice against the toad of being large and ugly.