I was wandering down by a pond with my son. We were skipping rocks and having a great time. Then he asked me one of those questions that I had never really thought much about… “Are frogs and toads the same thing?”
Now I knew that they weren’t the same thing. I have seen plenty of frogs and toads in the wild and in exhibits at aquariums, like the amazing poison dart frogs at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. But I had to confess that I did not know exactly what made frogs different from toads.
Here’s what I found out:
Toads:
Do not need to live near water to survive
Have rough, dry, bumpy skin
Have a wider body
Have lower, football shaped eyes
Have shorter, less powerful hind legs
Will run or take small hops rather than jump
Do not have many predators. (Lucky for them, toad’s skin lets out a bitter taste and smell that burns the eyes and nostrils of its predators, much like a skunk does.)
Frogs:
Need to live near water
Have smooth, moist skin that makes them look “slimy”.
Have a narrow body
Have higher, rounder, bulgier eyes
Have longer hind legs
Take long high jumps
Have many predators (Sad for them.)
One more fun fact…. Frogs and toads, (and salamanders) do not chew their food; instead they press their eyeballs down on the roof of their mouth to swallow food whole.
Who knew?
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