First thing this morning, I headed out the back door to stoke my leaf burner. This thing has been burning nonstop for nigh on three weeks now. The ice storms took a hefty toll on our citrus trees causing all of the leaves to drop. The thirty-plus feet tall grapefruit tree had leaves stacked about a foot high beneath it. Burning them was the easiest and quickest way to rid the yard of them therefore preventing a fire hazard. While heading down the path to the burner, I passed the small Frog Pond. Last night was a busy night there. The American Toads have decided that it is springtime and "love" is in the air. The males' shrill calls for females filled the night. By the end of the week, the pond will be filled with the long strands of fertilized eggs. As I meandered, I glanced in the pond. What was that? Down in the bottom of the pond, three white things could be seen. Without my trusty glasses, I was not positive but those three things looked a lot like toads....three toads that were taking a nice long slumber on the bottom of the pond. Wait a minute! That does not happen! Especially with the toads being belly up. Those toads were dead! I needed my glasses. I headed back inside to fetch the spectacles and the camera. (Ok, I gave you fair warning!)
Sure enough when I looked again, the toads were indeed quite dead. They appeared rather mutilated to be honest. Well, that would not do! I had just cleaned that little pond and dead things did not belong there! So the nasty job of retrieving the dead toads commenced. Of course, I cannot leave things well enough alone. I had to examine the toads. It was quite the grisly ordeal but if I wanted to determine just what killed the toads, I had to do it. Ummm, one was rather badly mutilated. What I thought was a third toad was merely a portion of one of the others. It was then that I realized that both toads were female and I became fully aware what had happened. Love hurts...or in this case...killed. In the frenzy to mate, male toads try to rip the female from an opposing male's clutch. If only a few females answer the "call", there is an intense battle between the many males. The poor little female catches the brunt of their hostility. She is literally ripped to pieces. These two females were killed by the onslaught of males. One odd thing about this whole situation is the fact that although the female was killed, her eggs could possibly live since the eggs are fertilized after she expels them. It has been observed that once the dominate male realizes that the female has perished, he can literally "squeeze" her enough to force the eggs from her lifeless body. As ruthless as this may seem, it is a survival tactic. The dominant male can still procreate. No parental care of the eggs is needed after the fertilization takes place. (The next picture is really upsetting...third warning!)
It made me sad to see the small lifeless bodies of the two female toads. The survival of the fittest is sometimes cruel and barbaric. In the amphibian world, reproduction is far from a loving matter. Two little toads have been laid to rest beneath the Ruby Lilies.
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