Oriental fire-bellied toad (2024)

Unlike most frogs and toads, they do not have a tympanic membrane, or eardrum. Unlike most frogs and toads, male fire-bellied toads do not have a resonator; they actually make calls through inhalation rather than exhalation.

When threatened, the oriental fire-bellied toad uses a distinctive defensive posture. It bends its back downward, forming a concave surface, which reveals the edges of its bright belly. It also hold its limbs up and arches its head in a posture called the "Unken Reflex."

When actually provoked or attacked, a second defensive phase comes into play where the toad flips onto its back to reveal the full extent of its warning colors. Should provocation continue, the toad secretes a milky toxin from the hundreds of tiny pores located throughout its body and is thus coated. Once a predator tastes this toxin, it will rarely if ever attack again, although grass snakes and other water serpents are known to attack and devour these toads without ill effects.

This family of toads cannot extend their tongues like other toads or frogs. To feed, they must leap forward and catch their prey with their mouths.

Larvae consume detritus, various algae, fungi, higher plants and protozoans. The tadpole diet widens as it matures because of an increase in plant and animal diversity. They begin eating terrestrial invertebrates before they complete metamorphosis while the toadlets still have a small tail. Adult food consists of terrestrial invertebrates including worms, mollusks and insects.

At the Smithsonian's National Zoo, they eat small crickets three times a week.

The toad hibernates from fall to late spring in in groups of one to six individuals. They hide in rotten trees, heaps of stones and leaves, or underwater in streams. When warmer temperatures arrive in mid-May, the toads emerge and start breeding.

Males float on top of the water with their legs splayed, calling with a sound like the gentle tapping of a musical triangle: a "ting-ting" sound that rarely lasts longer than 15 seconds.

Mating usually occurs at night with males grasping the females just in front of the hind limbs, a position known as amplexus. To aid their grip, males are equipped with rough nuptial pads on the inner thumbs, although uninterested females are inevitably able to squirm their way out. Males will often work themselves into such a frenzy that they accidentally grasp on to anything that looks remotely like another toad, including floating twigs, plants, other frogs and toads, newts, fish and even human fingers.

The reproductive period is very long within each population because different females deposit eggs at different times. Breeding pairs are formed randomly. If mating is successful, females will deposit 40 to 110 eggs either individually or in small clumps of about four to 25 eggs very close to the water surface where the warmth of the sun (spotlight) can aid embryo development. After about six to eight weeks, hind limbs begin to appear, one from the spiracle, which marks the beginning of lung development. Tadpoles can frequently be seen surfacing to take gulps of air. After eight to 14 weeks, the tadpoles enter a critical phase when they begin to metamorphose into fully air-breathing amphibians. Tadpoles complete metamorphosis usually by the end of August or September.