A toad is a cold blooded animal. It is also an amphibian because it lives on land and water. It lives in the water when it is a tadpole. The tadpoles use their tails to swim. Tadpoles have gills that change into lungs. When the tadploe grows into a toad, it lives on land. Toads have a spinnacle for breathing. They have a clockspring intestine that digests their food. They use their 5 toes for swimming. Toads like to cool off and drink water through their skins. They also have a long sticky tongue for catching its food. The toads warty skin has poison for protection from their predators. Toads have ears, but you can't see it.

A tadpole lives in fishponds, lakes, taro patchs and marshs it has to be in water until the tail disappears. When it is a toad it has to be in damp, warm surroundings. In the fall, it will bury itself 3 feet under the soil to keep warm. It will stay there till spring. They like to hide under low growing plants and rocks.

The female frog lays its eggs in the water and a male fertilizes them. The eggs change from a single cell to four cells. These eggs develop into tiny tadpoles which hatch and start to swim away. First, hind legs begin to grow. Then, the front legs begin to grow. The eyes get bigger and the mouth begins to grow. The tail starts to shorten. Lungs develop, and the gills disappear. Now, the tadpole must come up to the surface to breathe. Its digestive system begins to change, too. Finally, it looks more like its parents and it is a toad that lives on land.

Did you know hungry toads and tadpoles enjoy having a feast in the great wetlands? A Bufo toad eats 50 to 100 slugs, flies, grubs, grasshoppers, and cutworms every night. An American toad can eat several thousand insects in a month. It also eats 86 flies in 10 minutes and 2000 cutworms during the summer. Tadpoles and toads eat masquito larvae in the water and eat insects off plants. In Hawaii toads were introduced to eat cane beetles. In 2 years, 148 toads multiplied into over 100,000 toads.