A FROG CALLED TOAD: NEW AMPHIBIAN SPECIES FOR ABACO

Welcome to the wonderful world of the tiny Eastern narrow-mouthed toad. This non-native species has just been discovered on Abaco and formally identified. It looks like a toad. It’s called a toad. It’s actually a frog. There’s a song from the ’60s (dread decade) called ‘Walkin’ my cat named dog…’. But no one has come up with ‘Check out my frog named toad’. Yet.

THE FIRST EVIDENCE ON ABACO

A year ago, Sean Giery reported on the excellent ABACO SCIENTIST website that he had heard the unmistakeable (to him) mating call of Eastern narrow-mouthed toads Gastrophryne carolinensis in the Marsh Harbour area, Abaco. Denizens of south-eastern US, the species had previously only been recorded in the Bahamas on Grand Bahama and New Providence.

Sean estimated that he heard several dozen of these tiny 2.5cm frogs, suggesting a well-established population. A veritable Frog Chorus.** However, he wasn’t able to obtain a specimen, so his identification was by sound alone – vividly described as “like a bleating lamb with a stuffy nose”. You can read the full article from last May HERE.

THE FIRST SPECIMEN IS FOUND 

In a further article one year later HERE, Sean relates how he was called to the home of alert student Donte Richard, who had remembered the original post. This was in a different area of MH, suggesting a spread of population. Others had reported the distinctive bleating calls as well. Identification of the specimen frog was made by researchers at the Frank Kenyon Centre, Friends of the Environment, and confirms a new addition to Abaco’s vertebrate fauna.