The American Toad can be many colors like tan, brown, brick-red, and green. It has warts on its skin. Warts are bumps. It has spots on its belly. An adult toad is chubby. It can get to be almost 4.5 inches long.

The big sack under its neck is called a dewlap. The toad blows up its dewlap like a bubble gum bubble when it wants to sing. It sings in the spring to attract a mate.

After mating, the female lays thousands of eggs in a pond or other water. The eggs hatch into tadpoles. The tadpoles look like fish at first. After a while, they grow legs and lose their tails. They have lungs. Now they are toads!

This toad can eat up to 1,000 insects a day. It sticks out its tongue to catch flies and spiders. The toad hides from predators under rocks or leaves. Its skin gives off a nasty chemical to keep animals away. A toad may puff up its body or play dead to protect itself.

In the fall, the toad digs a hole three feet into the ground. It sleeps all winter in this hole. The American toad can live up to 30 years. Most do not live more than a year or two, though. It is found in the eastern half of Canada and the United States.

People cannot get warts from touching a toad. The toad helps our environment by eating garden pests.