Anaxyrus microscaphus
Silhouette: Michael Scroggie, from original photograph by Gary M. Stolz, USFWS (original photograph in public domain). · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The Arizona toad (Anaxyrus microscaphus) is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to the south-western United States, where its natural habitats are temperate lowland forests, rivers and streams, swamps, freshwater marshes, freshwater springs, ponds, open excavations, irrigated land, and seasonally flooded agricultural land.
The Arizona toad was first described by the American herpetologist Edward Drinker Cope in 1867. He named it Bufo microscaphus and the type locality was Fort Mohave, Arizona. In 1998, the American herpetologist A. W. E. Gergus raised all three to full species status on the basis of allozyme evidence, allopatry and morphology. The large genus Bufo was split by Frost et al. in 2006, with the North American species being included in the genus Anaxyrus.
The Arizona toad grows to a snout-to-vent length of 53 to 79 mm (2 to 3 in). The dorsal colour is variable but is often gray or beige with reddish-brown warts. The parotoid glands are oval and widely separated... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zion National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report an Arizona Toad sighting in Zion National Park on a given day, based on 222 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 2nd most-seen of the 7 amphibians we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report an Arizona Toad in Zion National Park on a given day, against under 5% in November to February, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Arizona Toad sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is seen both by day and at night.
Only Zion National Park, in our data
Zion National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Arizona Toad sightings: about 40% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Anaxyrus
The closest relatives of the Arizona Toad that you can see in Zion National Park (genus Anaxyrus, North American Toads) are Red-spotted Toad (about 10%) and Woodhouse's Toad (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Arizona Toad is recorded against all the amphibians logged in Zion National Park (222 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
