What is an Amphibian? – Amphibians are cold-blooded (unable to internally control their body temperatures, meaning their bodies remain at the same temperature as their immediate surroundings) vertebrates (backbone or spinal column). In this article, our team starts the amazing journey of discovering these often ignored classes of animals.
With the two endemic frogs, the Fijian ground frog (Platymantis Vitianus) and the smaller tree frog (Platymantis vitiensis), and the dominant cane toad, one you will definitely observe hopping across the road or pathway whilst traversing across the islands, a formidable character introduced into Fiji in the 1930s by the Fijian Agriculture Department as a biological control agent.
Seven visual differences between a Frog and Toad
- Legs – There difference in leg length – Frogs have much longer hind legs and have the ability to leap over 1 meter in distance, whereas the cane toads with their shorter stubby legs can only hop several centimeters.
- Body shape – Frogs project the appearance of athletic-looking animals. Toads are more aptly described as dumpy-looking.
- Skin Appearances – The skin of a frog is relatively smooth and moist skin. The skin of a toad is bumpy with thicker skin than frogs
- Skin Moisture – Frogs have moist skin with a slimy feel. The skin of toads is usually the complete opposite with much drier skin.
- Habitat Differences – Frogs live on the water. They don’t stay in water 100 percent of the time. When they leave the water to go on land, they don’t venture far away from the water. Toads live on land. They will go into the water, but that’s not where they live. Because toads spend most of their time on land, they tend to stay close to the water.
- Colour Variations – Frogs tend to be much brighter and more vibrant in colour than toads. Most common frogs are (bright green or yellowy-green, though brownish-green hue). Toads are dark green or a dull shade of olive green
- Nose Shapes – A frog’s nose is somewhat much pointier in shape, with the toad’s nose being much broader in shape than that of a frog.
Two-phase, Six-stage lifecycle of the frog and toad
During the courting and mating rituals, Frogs and toads produce a rich variety of sounds, calls, and songs, the callers, usually males, make stereotyped sounds in order to advertise their location, and their mating readiness. Females steadily move toward and locate the calling males, where they gather in large numbers around a water source such as a pond, marsh and or drainage ditches.
Once the male has chosen his mate, the male clasps the female from behind in the sexual embrace called ‘amplexus’, in which the male typically takes a position on the back of the female and tightly grasps onto the female with his front legs, they can remain attached in this position for several days. Observations that this can be a highly aggressive act.
Eggs /Spawn – The attached pair swim about as the female swollen with eggs selects a site for depositing them as several thousand eggs are expelled from the female’s body in jelly-like streams the male fertilizes them with sperm. The Jelly surrounding the eggs swells in the water until each egg is covered with a thick coating this acts as a float to keep the eggs near the surface of the water where it is warmer and there is more oxygen
The eggs take 1-3 days to develop before a tadpole will hatch from each fertilized egg and another 22 days to mature before they leave the water. First, the developing tadpole grows longer then the body and tail take shape and the tadpole shows signs of life with small wriggling movements at this stage the tadpole does not have any legs and breathes through gills. In the next stage of development, the tadpole loses the gills and develops lungs, with the final stage within the aquatic environment, limbs appear first two hind legs and then two front legs and the tail is absorbed the tadpole has metamorphosed into a frog/toad and is able to begin a new way of life on land. It will take almost two years to reach adulthood and be ready to mate with the opposite sex, to start this whole cycle again.
Fijian Cane Toad
In the 1936s Fijian farmers had a really big problem there’s sugar cane crops were being decimated by a voracious grub the larvae of the cane beetle which destroys the plant’s roots; after failed attempts at chemically controlling the grubs officials sought a biological solution they thought if they introduced a predator of the beetle, the problem would be solved.
The Fijian ecosystem was never the same again, the toads quickly became one of the dominant predators rapidly spreading over the two main islands today cane toads properly known as bufo marinus are one of the most notorious of all invasive species in Fiji this lumpy guy is seemingly unstoppable, with a large appetite they consume insects trash, dog food, small reptiles, and rodents and even small birds the one thing it doesn’t eat so is the cane beetle perched too high off the ground for cane toads to reach and the toads certainly can’t get to the grubs underground.
The introduction of this Fijian non-native habitat has been linked to the decline of several native species. The cane toads’ particular biology makes it so most of the natural inhabitants of the Fijian ecosystem don’t stand a chance largely because cane toads are extremely poisonous adult cane toads have venom-secreting poison glands on each shoulder where a highly toxic milky substance is released when they are threatened if an animal tries to bite at the toad.
Unfortunately, it’s not just the adult cane toads that are the problem even the eggs and the tadpoles are poisonous which if ingested by vertebrate predators like fish and turtles can be fatal and this is no small threat cane toads don’t just lay a few eggs they lay a devastating amount of eggs and their toxicity added to their sheer numbers is creating a completely unexpected evolutionary event the life of a cane toad begins within an egg one cane toad female can lay up to 40,000 eggs at a time that’s a lot of eggs but usually when an animal has so many offspring they don’t expect many of them to survive but the problem with the cane toads in Fiji is the majority of them do survive these tiny black dots speckled down the string of eggs soon will hatch into tadpoles through metamorphosis process to emerge onto the land as young toads, staring the life whole cycle again.
Although the toad is not a real threat to humans, if you have handled one, always wash your hands thoroughly afterward and before consuming any food.
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