Common toad

Common toad
Kampinos Forest, Poland Common toad calls, recorded in Radnor, Wales
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Anura
Family:	Bufonidae
Genus:	Bufo
Species:	B. bufo
Binomial name
Bufo bufo (Linnaeus, 1758)
Range map of common toad
Synonyms
List Bufo (Bufo) bufo Dubois and Bour, 2010 Bufo (Bufo) grediscola Dubois and Bour, 2010 Bufo Roeselii Daudin, 1802 Bufo Rouselei Latreille, 1801 Bufo alpinus Schinz, 1833 Bufo bufo bufo Poche, 1912 Bufo bufo gredosicola Müller and Hellmich, 1935 Bufo carbunculus Bonaparte, 1835 Bufo cinereus var. hybridus Koch, 1872 Bufo cinereus var. medius Koch, 1872 Bufo cinereus var. minor Koch, 1872 Bufo cinereus Schneider, 1799 Bufo communis Bruch, 1862 Bufo communis Günther, 1859 Bufo commutatus Steenstrup, 1846 Bufo ferruginosus Risso, 1826 Bufo minutus Schinz, 1833 Bufo palmarum Cuvier, 1829 Bufo rubeta var. robustior Lataste, 1880 Bufo rubeta Schneider, 1799 Bufo spelaeus Rivière, 1886 Bufo tuberculosus Risso, 1826 Bufo ventricosus Bonnaterre, 1789 Bufo ventricosus Laurenti, 1768 Bufo vinearum Lesson, 1841 Bufo vulgaris cinereus Lataste, 1880 Bufo vulgaris var. acutirostris Lessona, 1877 Bufo vulgaris var. obtusirostris Lessona, 1877 Bufo vulgaris Laurenti, 1768 Pegaeus bufo Gistel, 1868 Rana (Bufo) vulgaris Guérin-Méneville, 1838 Rana Bufo Linnaeus, 1758

The common toad, European toad, or in Anglophone parts of Europe, simply the toad (Bufo bufo, from Latin bufo "toad"), is an amphibian found throughout most of Europe (with the exception of Ireland, Iceland, and some Mediterranean islands), in the western part of North Asia, and in a small portion of Northwest Africa. It is one of a group of closely related animals that are descended from a common ancestral line of toads and which form a species complex. The toad is an inconspicuous animal as it usually lies hidden during the day. It becomes active at dusk and spends the night hunting for the invertebrates on which it feeds. It moves with a slow, ungainly walk or short jumps, and has greyish-brown skin covered with wart-like lumps.

Although toads are usually solitary animals, in the breeding season, large numbers of toads converge on certain breeding ponds, where the males compete to mate with the females. Eggs are laid in gelatinous strings in the water and later hatch out into tadpoles. After several months of growth and development, these sprout limbs and undergo metamorphosis into tiny toads. The juveniles emerge from the water and remain largely terrestrial for the rest of their lives.

The common toad seems to be in decline in part of its range, but overall is listed as being of "least concern" in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is threatened by habitat loss, especially by drainage of its breeding sites, and some toads get killed on the roads as they make their annual migrations. It has long been associated in popular culture and literature with witchcraft.

The common toad was first given the name Rana bufo by the Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae in 1758. In this work, he placed all the frogs and toads in the single genus Rana. It later became apparent that this genus should be divided, and in 1768, the Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti placed the common toad in the genus Bufo, naming it Bufo bufo. The toads in this genus are included in the family Bufonidae, the true toads.