Sounds of Bufo punctatus - Red-spotted Toad

(= Anaxyrus punctatus)

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Male calling at night

Distant view of desert
oasis breeding habitat

Advertisement Calls

An advertisement call is the most well-known call of a toad. It is produced by a male during the breeding season to attract females of his own species. It can also serve an agressive function to defend his calling site by warning rival males of his presence. Toads usually make the calls around bodies of water that are suitable for breeding and egg laying. These calls can be heard during the evening and at night, and sometimes during daylight at the peak of the breeding season.

This toad's call is a prolonged high-pitched musical trill, lasting up to 10 seconds, which is produced at night .

This is a 9 second recording of a toad calling at night while floating on the water of a small artificial desert pond (shown below) in San Diego County.

This is a 17 second recording of a series of two calls from the previous toad. Several calls of Pseudacris cadaverina - California Treefrog are heard in the second half.

Breeding habitat, San Diego County

This is a 28 second recording of the nocturnal advertisement calls of a few male Red-spotted toads calling from a small rain pool in Pima County, Arizona (shown below) in August. Crickets can be heard in the background.

This is a very short recording of one call from a single toad at the same small rain pool in Pima County, Arizona.

Breeding habitat, Pima County, Arizona

This is a 2:27 recording of several close and distant toads calling at night from isolated pools in a canyon bottom in Yavapai County, Arizona (shown below.) The distant echoes of braying wild donkeys, bird sounds, and Lowland Leopard Frogs can be heard in the backgound.

This is a 23 second recording of two close toads calling at night from isolated pools in a canyon bottom in Yavapai County, Arizona (shown below.)

Breeding habitat, Yavapai County, Arizona

This is a 41 second recording of a group of toads calling at night in Brewster County, Texas near the Rio Grande River.

Waveform and Sonogram

This is a recording of one repetition of the advertisement call of a Red-spotted Toad recorded at night in San Diego County. The image on the right is a visual representation of this call. Click on it to see a larger image. Click here for information about how to read the waveform and sonogram images.

Release Calls

A release call is produced by a male toad or an unreceptive female toad when a male toad or other animal gets on its back and grabs its sides in the position used for mating or amplexus. It's a toad's way of saying "Get off my back! Let go!"

This is a 14 second recording of the release calls made by a male Red-spotted toad from Pima County, Arizona, as it was grasped across the back.

Short Video

A male Red-spotted Toad calls at night in San Diego County. California Treefrogs are calling in the background.	One call of a Red-spotted toad at night in San Diego County.
You can listen to more recordings of Red-spotted Toads on this cd: Carlos Davidson - Frog and Toad Calls of the Pacific Coast - Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and on the cd that comes with this book: Lang Elliott, Carl Gerhardt, and Carlos Davidson - The Frogs and Toads of North America - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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