Anaxyrus woodhousii
Silhouette: Michael Scroggie, from original photograph by Gary M. Stolz, USFWS (original photograph in public domain). · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Woodhouse's toad (Anaxyrus woodhousii) is a medium-sized (4 inches or 10 centimetres) true toad native to the United States and Mexico. There are three recognized subspecies. A. woodhousii tends to hybridize with Anaxyrus americanus where their ranges overlap.
Woodhouse's toad was first described in 1854 by the French herpetologist Charles Frédéric Girard. He gave it the name Bufo woodhousii in honor of the American physician and naturalist Samuel Washington Woodhouse. The large genus Bufo was split by Frost et al. in 2006, with the North American species being included in the genus Anaxyrus and this toad becoming A. woodhousii. There are three recognised subspecies:
Rocky Mountain toad – Anaxyrus woodhousii woodhousii (Girard, 1854) East Texas toad – Anaxyrus woodhousii velatus (Bragg and Sanders, 1951) Southwestern Woodhouse's toad – Anaxyrus woodhousii australis (Shannon & Lowe, 1955)
At one time, Fowler's toad (Anaxyrus fowleri) was considered to be a subspecies. Woodhouse's toad is a robust amphibian and can grow to a maximum snout-vent length of 127 mm (5 in). The head has prominent cranial crests in front of and in between the eyes. The parotoid... Wikipedia →
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| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Badlands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Grand Canyon National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Death Valley National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Padre Island National Seashore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Zion National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phoenix Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Oklahoma Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Schramm Education Center | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Medicine Park Aquarium & Natural Sciences Center | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Woodhouse's Toad sighting in Phoenix on a given day, based on 105 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the most-seen of the 6 amphibians we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Woodhouse's Toad in Phoenix on a given day, against under 5% in January, the lowest month. That is one of Phoenix's driest months, with almost no rain against 35 mm in January.
Between 8 and 11 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Woodhouse's Toad sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is seen both by day and at night.
3rd of 5
Of the 5 cities where we can rate Woodhouse's Toad sightings, Phoenix ranks 3rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Denver (United States, about 20%) and Mesa (United States, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Woodhouse's Toad is recorded against all the amphibians logged in Phoenix (105 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
