The green toad (Bufo viridis ali Pseudepidalea viridis) is smaller than its related common toad. Its warty body, from the start of the rounded snout to the end of the trunk, measures from 5 to 10 cm. Males are slimmer than females and grow up to 8 cm.
Her warty skin is sandy-colored and painted with numerous large irregular-shaped spots. These are olive-green in color and often bordered with a darker edge. The iris of her eyes is golden-green, and the black pupil is horizontal. Like other toads, the green toad also has a pronounced parotoid gland at the nape of the neck.
The green toad is widely distributed across Slovenia, but it is a fairly rare species that we do not encounter every day, or night, as it is active primarily at night and at dusk. Similar to its larger relative, it feeds on slugs and other invertebrates.
Her primary habitat are floodplain areas of lowland rivers, where during mating she gathers in small temporary pools in sunny places. With the expansion of human settlements, regulation of watercourses and similar human interventions in the environment, her habitat continues to shrink… The green toad has managed to adapt and reproduces successfully also in secondary habitats, in habitats that are the work of human hands. Thus today for breeding sites she also chooses gravel pits, sand pits and even construction sites near settlements.
Green toads spend most of the year on land. Here, buried in loose soil or hidden under branches or rocks, in the burrows of small mammals, in barns or stables they also overwinter. In water the green toad stays only during the breeding period, from April to July. At breeding sites, males with a buzzing croak r-r-r-r-r-r-r r-r-r-r-r-r-r, which is strongly similar to the call of the common toad, call the females from sunset to midnight.
In Slovenia the green toad is protected and listed as a vulnerable (VU) species on the Red List!
