The Urban Pantheist

Since the woodfrogling went over well, I thought I'd pull up another amphibian from the archives. Bufo marinus is known by many names, depending on where it's found. Usually it's called "marine toad," which doesn't make much sense--like other members of genus Bufo, it is terrestrial (to my knowledge there are no marine amphibians). Probably it should be called the "giant neotropical toad." In Australia it is widely hated as the "cane toad," because it was introduced to help control a pest of the sugar cane crop. It wasn't very good at that, but it excelled as an invasive species and has spread across the continent eating anything a little smaller than itself, and poisoning anything that tries to eat it.

In Costa Rica (part of its vast native range), its attracted to the great quantities of insects attracted to the lights of human settlement. At Tortuguero, the lodge was the only source of artificial light for miles, and these toads were common at night. The one I'm holding is one of the smaller ones.



Photo by my dad, Doc Taylor.