The Sonoran green toad (''Anaxyrus retiformis''; in Spanish "sapo verde de Sonora" or "sapo verde sonorense")
is a species of
toad in the family
Bufonidae. It is found in northern
Mexico and the southwestern
United States.
Distribution and habitat
The Sonoran green toad is
endemic to the counties of
Pima
Pima or PIMA may refer to:
People
* Pima people, the Akimel O'odham, Indigenous peoples in Arizona (U.S.) and Sonora (Mexico)
Places
* Pima, Arizona, a town in Graham County
* Pima County, Arizona
* Pima Canyon, in the Santa Catalina Mountains ...
and
Pinal in Arizona in the south western United States and to northern Mexico. In the United States its range extends from near
Mobile
Mobile may refer to:
Places
* Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city
* Mobile County, Alabama
* Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S.
* Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Mobile ...
southwards to the
San Cristobal Wash and the
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and eastwards to the
Mission San Xavier del Bac and the
Altar Valley. In Mexico its range is from the west-central part of
Sonora State northwards. Its altitudinal range is from . Its typical habitat is arid and semi-arid plains with grass,
creosote bush,
mesquite and
saguaro.
Behavior
The Sonoran green toad is
nocturnal
Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite.
Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...
and little is known of its behavior outside the breeding season. It is thought that it may be
fossorial
A fossorial () animal is one adapted to digging which lives primarily, but not solely, underground. Some examples are badgers, naked mole-rats, clams, meerkats, and mole salamanders, as well as many beetles, wasps, and bees.
Prehistoric eviden ...
, living underground for most of the year and emerging only in wet conditions, and it is not clear whether or not it
estivate
Aestivation ( la, aestas (summer); also spelled estivation in American English) is a state of animal dormancy, similar to hibernation, although taking place in the summer rather than the winter. Aestivation is characterized by inactivity and ...
s. Breeding takes place in July and August, the males appearing at breeding sites one to two days after heavy rain has fallen. The sites chosen are ditches, temporary pools, creek beds and cattle tanks. The males call from low vegetation within a few metres of the water. The call has been described as resembling "the buzzer on an electric alarm clock".
[ When a female arrives in response to the male, they move together into the water, amplexus occurs and a batch of eggs is laid. The temporary waterbodies tend to dry up rapidly and it is thought that the eggs hatch within three days and the tadpoles develop to ]metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...
in two to three weeks.[
]
Status
The Sonoran green toad is inactive for about ten months of the year so information on it is limited. The population is believed to be stable as it has been redetected in most of its historic locations and has been discovered in a number of new ones. Females are sometimes collected for the pet trade or research but otherwise it faces few particular threats and increased irrigation may create new habitats. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of " least concern".
References
*
{{Authority control
Anaxyrus
Amphibians of Mexico
Amphibians of the United States
Amphibians described in 1951
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot