Varaldi's spadefoot toad

Appearance

Males grow to 65 mm (2.6 in) and females to 70 mm (2.8 in) in snout–vent length. The dorsum is finely glandular and smooth. Colouration is grey-brown with irregular darker markings. The ventral side of the body is white.

The tadpoles can reach 130 mm (5.1 in) in length.

Range and habitat

As currently known, it is endemic to the coastal north-western Morocco, although there is an unconfirmed record from the Spanish territory of Melilla that could possibly represent this species.

This species might be present in the Merja Zerga Biological Reserve.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Breeding

Calling males and egg sites define most frog field work. A species known from one ridge is as narrow as it sounds.

Eggs and damp skin make amphibians quick to vanish from a drained wetland or a forest stripped of litter.

In crisis

It is threatened by habitat loss and degradation caused by the conversion of land to livestock pasture as well as the pollution of ponds with livestock droppings. Also the introduced Gambusia holbrooki is a threat.

Chytrid fungus, collection, and wet-forest loss are the usual pressures on frogs with a high threat category.

Varaldi's spadefoot toad is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Varaldi's spadefoot toad, Wikidata item Q1552418. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.