(Great Basin Spadefoot)
|
(Great Basin Spadefoot) |
| COMMON NAME: Great Basin Spadefoot
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Scaphiopus intermontanus
STATUS: Federal- No status; States-
No status
RANKING: Global- Secure; Idaho, Wyoming-
Apparently secure
FOREST PRESENT: Fishlake
|
 |
DESCRIPTION: The Great Basin Spadefoot
is a small toad and reaches 2 inches in length. Like other spadefoots,
it has a stocky body, relatively smooth skin, blunt snout, vertical pupils
and spades. It has drier skin than the Plains Spadefoot and the boss
between the eyes is glandular, not bony like the boss on the Plains Spadefoot.
There is usually a dark brown spot on the upper eyelids. Dorsal coloration
ranges from olive to greenish-gray with ash gray streaks forming an hourglass
shape on the back. Black spots appear on the back. The ventral
surface is white. Tadpoles are heavily bodied with eyes close together
and prominent mistrals. They have anterior mouths and the gray or
tan skin is brass flecked. The Great Basin Spadefoot is the only
spadefoot found in Idaho and Nevada.
LIFE HISTORY: The Great Basin
Spadefoot is found in a variety of habitats ranging from sagebrush flats,
semi desert shrub lands, pinyon-juniper and spruce-fir forest up to 9,200
feet in elevation. It is probably found in every forest in the region
except the Bridger-Teton and Salmon-Challis. The Great Basin Spadefoot
forages primarily at night but may occasionally be seen during the day.
It burrows underground when inactive.
BREEDING: This species breeds in temporary and permanent water, usually after spring or summer rainfall. It has been found breeding in rain pools, flooded areas along streams and pools in intermittent streams. The eggs are pigmented and either attached to floating sticks or submerged vegetation, or the eggs are deposited on the bottom of the pool in grape to plum-sized clusters of up to 40 eggs each. A single female can lay up to 500 eggs.
DIET: Larvae probably eat a variety
of organic material and algae. Adults consume insects.
VOICE: The Great Basin Spadefoot emits
a series of short (1/5- 1 second) hoarse "kwah", "wa", or "rah" calls.
It calls mainly at night and can be heard from a great distance.
USDA,
Forest Service
Federal
Building
324
25th Street
Ogden,
Utah 84401