Toads
The everglades is a vast wetland with many different amphibious creatures.
While taking tourists on guided tours though the everglades, many of them ask me, "where are all of the frogs?" That’s when I explain to them that frogs are mainly nocturnal creatures. That means that they are active at night. If you want to find frogs you must go out after dark and look for them with a bright light. You really won’t see the frogs because their colors are too well matched to their surroundings but they can’t camouflage your light reflecting off of their eyes. I also explain that there are two types of these hopping creatures in Florida. There are frogs and then there are the subject of this month’s story, toads.
The difference is that frogs like to spend most of their time in water while toads are found on land. People tend to think of frogs shooting out their tongues, which can be longer than the frog’s whole body, and catching a fly right out of the air. Well, frogs do prefer smaller insects. A toad, however, will eat almost anything it can swallow, even mice. There are many toads that can be found in the South Florida area. The most notorious toad of all is the Bufo Toad, (scientific name: Marinus) also known as the cane toad. The bufo toad was originally from South America and found up into Texas. Here in South Florida, the bufos can get as big as nine inches long and weigh up to a couple of pounds or more, although, most bufo toads we see are about three to six inches long and weigh only a few ounces. There are many theories about how the bufo toad was introduced to Florida.
The funniest story I’ve heard says that a shipment of bufo toads was being delivered to a collector here in South Florida. The plane delivering the bufo toads to Miami International Airport landed and docked for delivery. While the cargo was being unloaded, one of the forklift operators dropped his load on the ground and the crate of bufo toads burst open. The forklift operator tried to catch all of the toads but a few got away. It was said, that the "few" that got away mated and populated all of South Florida. I don’t believe that story, because, within just a few years the bufos had been found as far away as the sugarcane fields all the way up by lake Okeechobee and that’s one hundred miles away.
The most popular theory about how bufo toads got here, to South Florida, is that the sugarcane farmers up around lake Okeechobee turned them loose on purpose because they’d hoped the toads would eat the beetles that eat the sugarcane. It’s a reasonable assumption that they would, since bufo toads will eat almost anything they can fit in their mouth and swallow. They love to eat beetles just like the kind that likes to eat sugarcane.
Oh, just a quick note to everybody with a sweet tooth, for those who don’t know how vast an area the sugarcane fields cover. The sugarcane fields south of lake Okeechobee are about twenty three miles long and about fifty miles wide. All of this massive area used to be everglades.
It’s hard to imagine that the water that runs off the sugarcane fields and returns to the everglades to become our drinking water here in South Florida can be filtered and cleaned of all of the pesticides and fertilizers before it gets into the everglades, but that is what they claim, and that’s all in one of my previous stories anyway. For those of you who haven’t read that story yet, I’ll just give a little review.
The water in the everglades comes from as far as Orlando. From Orlando to the south, Florida has a high ridge on the east and west coasts leaving a sort of basin down the center. As rainwater falls to the earth on either coast, it flows to the center of the state and then flows south in the Kissimmee River. The Kissimmee River flows into lake Okeechobee. Lake Okeechobee spills into narrow channels that run through the sugarcane fields and then into what’s left of the everglades. The everglades continue south and spill into Florida bay. If you take a tea spoon of sugar grown in South Florida, and drop it in your coffee in the morning, you just drank a little piece of the everglades. With that said, I also have to add that the sugar fields are just one of many problems plaguing the everglades.
Thousands of people a year move to South Florida and we have to give them a place to live. This is squeezing the everglades inward from the east and the west. Water management of South Florida pumps storm water run off, that nasty, dirty water from the cities’ streets into the everglades. I always thought that the water was supposed to flow out to the ocean, not back into the center of the state. More bridges, canals and spillways are popping up, interfering with the natural flow. Someone is making a lot of money from all of the projects and it seems the everglades is suffering. Well, I could go on and on about agendas in the everglades and let you all in on my conspiracy theories, but I’m supposed to be telling you about toads in South Florida.
Bufo toads are very dangerous to humans and animals. They have a defense mechanism which protects them from being eaten by bigger animals. These toads defend themselves by excreting a poisonous milky goo from glands on their backs. If a human were to pick up the bufo toad they would get the milky goo on their hands and if they did not wash their hands, it could be very irritating. The toxin from the glands of the bufo toad can irritate your eyes and make them water and sting for many hours. It can get so bad that you may want to seek medical treatment. That’s not the worst part. If the toxin gets in your mouth it could cause vomiting, convulsions, and disorientation. If you consumed a large quantity of the toxin it could be deadly.
Bufo toads, as I’ve already mentioned, will eat almost anything. They like to come into our back yards to eat the food we set out for our cats and dogs. We humans can be taught to control our urges to mess with the bufo toad, (except maybe for Gatorman). Dogs and cats, however, just don’t know any better. It’s unfortunate, but our pets are the most at risk from bufo toads since they are not recognized as a threat by our family pets. A dog or cat acting on their instincts may look at a bufo toad as something to attack and kill or just as something to play with. They hop slowly along and make themselves an easy target for a dog or cat. If your dog or cat grabs a bufo toad it could be deadly for them. The first thing that will happen is the animal will start salivating and foaming at the mouth. After that, the animal may start convulsing and vomiting. This is followed often by paralysis and sadly, by death. This is why you need to act quickly when you notice these symptoms. You need to wash out the animal’s mouth with fresh water for several minutes and call your veterinarian. The animal may need medical attention. If your pet eats a bufo toad and you do not notice the symptoms your pet could die from the toxin. To prevent this tragedy you need to keep the bufo toads out of your yard. That means, don’t leave pet food outside because it will attract the toads and watch your pets when they are outside.
There are many other species of toads in South Florida that are not as dangerous as the bufo toad. We have the spadefoot toad, the Southern toad, Fowler’s toad and the Oak toad. These are all small toads that you may find in many parts of Florida.
If you kiss a toad you will get a wart. No, I’m only kidding. You can’t get warts from kissing or handling toads but you still might want to wash your hands, especially if you’ve just handled a bufo toad.
The toad that I am posing with in the picture above this story is one that I caught in the wild. I turned that toad loose back where I caught him. Although bufo toads are a non-indigenous creature, Gatorman would never hurt any of his wild friends.
I do hope you liked my story this month. I will write about frogs for my next story and I will even tell you what happens when you kiss a frog. I’m sure you can’t wait.
If any student or educator would like to use this story in a school project, just let me know. I’m sure I will give you permission to use it.
You can email me at Gatorman1@aaof.us
Thank you so much for coming to my web site to read my stories and see what is happening in the everglades.
*This story
or any part of it can not be used or reproduced with out written
permission of the author!
