This summer, Ellen Schwartzel and Jenny Bull led two outings on Toronto Island to count baby toads (toadlets) as they emerge onto land after their tadpole stage. The sessions were on July 3rd and July 7th.
Toadlets typically migrate in large numbers, especially after rain, from late June through August, dependent on weather. Toadlets are often no larger than a fingernail (less than 1 cm) when they emerge from their aquatic tadpole stage, and are especially vulnerable.
Our goal of these outings is to inform City Park managers about documented sites used by toads as critical breeding habitat, so those sites can be protected from trampling, mowing and other human impacts. The sites chosen were Wards wetland, Algonquin lagoon, Franklin Garden and the Trout Pond, where toadlets have emerged in past years.
During the first session, the team located a migration of toadlets crossing a hot, sunny, sandy track in the Wards ESA wetland. They counted a total of 55 toadlets within the 10-minute observation interval. Assuming such migrations may go on for hours, there might be hundreds or thousands of toadlets involved. They also saw the unmistakeable tracks of a large turtle.
On the second session, the team was delighted to find many tiny toadlets hopping across paths at Franklin Gardens, one day after a heavy rain, and 14 days after many hundreds of individuals had first been observed at this site. One volunteer counted 16 toadlets in a 10-minute period; another volunteer, stationed at a key crossing point, counted 80 toadlets over 20 minutes. The toadlets somehow found their way up out of a wet rock-lined retaining ditch densely grown with jewelweed. Then they were able to discern a common trail across a hot sunny gravel path, and finally disperse into tall grasses and undergrowth. This suggests that the pond at Franklin gardens is one of the important breeding sites for toads on the island.
Our observations throw up a host of further tantalizing questions: What percentage of toadlets survive till autumn? What percentage successfully overwinter, and where do they hibernate? Stay tuned, and consider joining us for future toad themed outings next spring and summer.
