Animal Group Names Theme Week! — Day 4: Toads
All this week, we’re diving into the surprisingly fascinating names given to animal groups. Today: Toads.
A group of toads is called a knot. The name comes from the way large numbers of them gather together during breeding season, climbing over one another and entwining in large, wiggly masses in shallow water that look exactly like a tangled knot. Grouping tightly together helps them watch for predators and improves their chances of successful breeding.
Frogs vs. Toads: What’s the Difference?
All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. The differences come down to body, skin, and habitat. Toads have bumpy, dry skin, short forelimbs, and tend to hop or walk. Frogs have smoother skin, slim bodies, and long legs built for leaping and swimming. Frogs prefer to stay near water to keep their skin moist, while toads spend most of their time on land. The American toad is a common garden species across the Northeast, known for eating harmful insects. Predators include snakes, raccoons, and birds of prey.
Those “Warts” Aren’t Actually Warts
The bumps on a toad’s skin are commonly called warts, but they have nothing to do with actual warts — they’re fixed in size, present on healthy toads, and not caused by infection. Handling a toad will not give you warts. The largest bumps typically cover the parotoid glands, which produce a poisonous secretion called a bufotoxin. This substance can be lethal to small animals and cause allergic reactions in humans.
Where Toads Spend Their Days (and Winters)
Toads are mainly active at night. During the day, they burrow into loose soil, sand, or mud to stay cool, retain moisture, and hide from predators. They can also be found tucked under leaf piles, bark, rocks, and paving stones. In winter, toads bury themselves backward into the soil below the frost line, or shelter in compost and deep debris to hibernate.
What Toads Eat
Toads have no teeth, so they use their long, sticky tongues to catch prey and swallow it whole. Adults eat nearly any invertebrate that fits in their mouth — insects, beetles, ants, slugs, worms, caterpillars, spiders, and snails. A single toad can consume thousands of insects in a season, making them a genuinely useful presence in any garden.
Smallest, Largest, and the Record-Breaker
The smallest North American toad is the oak toad, native to the coastal southeastern United States, reaching only 1.3 inches in length. The largest toad species is the cane toad, which typically grows 4 to 6 inches and weighs around three pounds. In January 2023, an enormous cane toad found in Australia — nicknamed Toadzilla — weighed in at a record-breaking 5.95 pounds.
The Cane Toad Problem
Cane toads are highly opportunistic omnivores that will eat nearly anything they can swallow. They are notorious for being drawn to pet food left outdoors, table scraps, and garbage. Their toxic skin can kill wild and domesticated animals alike, and they are particularly dangerous to dogs. Despite being introduced across the Pacific and Caribbean islands as a form of agricultural pest control, cane toads are now considered an invasive species in many of those regions. In the United States, they are primarily established in Florida, Hawaii, and South Texas.