I took Kodo up to Lakeview Beach to watch Brian and Teresa play their volleyball tournament. He was getting restless just sitting on the hill watching, so I decided to walk him up and down the boardwalk a little while they were playing their game. I wasn't paying as close attention as I usually do since we were nowhere near any other people or pets at that point.. Suddenly a toad hops out of a sand hollow almost right under our feet...and before I can yank Kodo back, he pounces and grabs the little (guy? girl?) in his mouth..
..only to spit him back out a fraction of a second later. Toad hops away apparently unharmed, and Kodo turns to me foaming at the mouth with the most disgusted horrific expression on his face. He spent the next couple minutes twisting his tongue around, frothing spit, and shaking sprays of foam all over everything in the vicinity trying to get rid of the (I assume) horrible taste. I rinsed his mouth with some water as best I could, and within 5 minutes the frothing had subsided and he was back to normal. I kept a close eye on him and he showed no other ill effects- except we can always hope he has learned not to pick up everything that moves in his mouth!
I did some research when I got home, since I had no idea toads even LIVED on beaches, and this guy was a different color than I was used to seeing. The common opinion seems to be that the defensive secretions of this particular type of toad are noxious but not poisonous. I will still keep an eye on Kodo for a while just to be safe of course..
Fowler's Toad
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment