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Western toad

Anaxyrus boreas · Frogs and toads · Amphibians

Western toad (Anaxyrus boreas): Medium to large stocky toad, 2-5 in (females larger), blunt head, broad waist, short legs, warty skin. Thin light stripe down the middle of the back from head to rear end. This profile does not establish whether taking it is legal anywhere.

Check rules for a place and date

Certified rules currently represented in Hunt: coverage in development. This is coverage, not a legal answer.

Scientific name
Anaxyrus boreas
Family
Bufonidae
In North America
Native
Range
Pacific coast from southern Alaska to Baja California and east through the Rocky Mountains to west-central Alberta, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado; absent from most of the desert Southwest.
Biology

How to identify it

Medium to large stocky toad, 2-5 in (females larger), blunt head, broad waist, short legs, warty skin. [1][2]

Thin light stripe down the middle of the back from head to rear end. [1][2]

Prominent oval parotoid glands behind the eyes; no L-shaped cranial crests (Woodhouse's toad has elongate parotoids and L-shaped crests). [1][2]

Back brown, green, olive, grey or reddish-brown with warts ringed by dark blotches; underside light with irregular dark marks. [1][2]

Breeding males have smoother skin than females; newly metamorphosed toads lack obvious parotoids and the dorsal stripe may be faint or absent. [1][2]

Compared with the woodhouse's toad: Woodhouse's toad has L-shaped cranial crests and parotoid glands longer than the eye; the western toad has neither. [1][2]

Species it is confused with

Check these before deciding what you are looking at. If you are not certain what it is, do not shoot.

Field notes

  • Identification Confirm a western toad before you act. Compared with the woodhouse's toad: Woodhouse's toad has L-shaped cranial crests and parotoid glands longer than the eye; the western toad has neither.[1][2]
Field knowledge

Where it lives

Wide range from desert springs to mountain wetlands, using prairies, forests, canyon grasslands and pine-oak habitat. [1][2]

Breeds in ponds, lakes, reservoir coves, wetlands and river backwaters. [1][2]

Field knowledge

How it behaves

Call is a soft chirruping, plinking peep like a chick, heard day or night and audible only within about 100 ft; a rapid chirp is given as a release call. [1][2]

Breeds in still or slow water from mid-April at low elevation in western Washington, later at higher elevation; egg strings are laid in shallow water. [1][2]

Transformed toads are mostly terrestrial but stay near water in drier areas; they dig burrows or use small-mammal burrows, logs or rocks, and overwinter in cold climates. [1][2]

Feeds on insects and other small invertebrates; at lower elevations active in daylight in cool weather and mostly at night in warm weather. [1][2]

Regulatory handoff

Limited legal take

Legal take of this species exists only under narrow conditions — a quota, a draw, a permit, a small area, or animals released or held on private land — set by the authorities below. Nowhere else is a legal opportunity implied, and Hunt shows one only where a certified rule establishes it.

Where legal take is listed

Being listed is not an open season. Seasons, zones, licences, methods and limits decide whether this animal may be taken on a given day and place — check Hunt or the authority before you go. Listings read 2026-09-30.

Geospatial intelligence

Where it is found

Pacific coast from southern Alaska to Baja California and east through the Rocky Mountains to west-central Alberta, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado; absent from most of the desert Southwest.

Biology

Sources

Every claim above is attributed to one of these published sources.

  1. NatureServe · reviewed 2026-09-30

    NatureServe

  2. Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife · reviewed 2026-09-30

    Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife