Panther toad
| Panther toad | ||||||||||||
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Panther toad ( Sclerophrys regularis ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Sclerophrys regularis | ||||||||||||
| ( Reuss , 1833) |
The panther toad ( Sclerophrys regularis , synonyms : Amietophrynus regularis , Bufo regularis ) belongs to the genus Sclerophrys within the toad family (Bufonidae) . It used to be a real toad ( bufo ) for a long time . One speaks in Sclerophrys regularis also a super species that several species includes and subspecies. It is "the" typical toad of Africa. Another common German name is African toad , because of its distribution area in almost all of Africa.
description
The panther toad reaches a size of nine to 13 centimeters, with females becoming significantly larger than males. The skin is uniformly light to dark brown in color. In addition to a few dark spots, a large number of warty growths can be seen on the back. During the mating season, the coloring of the males changes significantly to yellow. The pupils of the eyes are slit horizontally. The warty outgrowths (cf. parotid ) on the back produce a milky secretion when there is danger or excitement, which, as with all toads, is poisonous .
This type of toad is crepuscular and usually hides in the sand, under stones or the like during the day. In addition to the size, the sexes differ in the color of the throat area, which is significantly darker in the male. The animals can reach an age of around 7 years in nature.
distribution
Panther toads are common in much of Africa with the exception of the northwest and south. Specifically, the following states are populated: Algeria , Angola , Benin , Burkina Faso , Cameroon , Central African Republic , Chad , Republic of Congo , Democratic Republic of Congo , Egypt , Equatorial Guinea , Eritrea , Ethiopia , Gabon , Gambia , Ghana , Guinea , Guinea- Bissau , Kenya , Liberia , Libya , Malawi , Mali , Niger , Nigeria , Rwanda , Senegal , Sierra Leone , Sudan , Tanzania and Uganda . In Egypt the panther toads are very numerous in the area of the Nile, since the many irrigation ditches offer good living conditions.
Calls
Calls and call activity
According to investigations in Egypt at Giza, in Fayoum and in the Nile Delta, the mating calls are simple. They consist of a series of short, similar impulses that are separated from one another by intervals. The calls therefore sound like a rattle. At a water temperature of 25 degrees Celsius, the calls consist of around 20 pulses and last around 550 milliseconds. The sound energy is concentrated in the range between 600 and 2000 Hertz. The males make the mating calls in long series. Calling toads have been observed in water temperatures of 18 to 34 degrees. As the water temperature rises, the duration of the calls, the pauses between calls and the intervals between the impulses decrease. The number of pulses per call only decreases slightly, the duration of the pulses does not change.
The district call was identified as a further type of call.
Annual and daily course of call activity
Calling and reproductive activity extends from February to November, is particularly high in spring and gradually decreases over the course of the year. The size of the calling males varies between 50 and 80 millimeters, the body length of the reproductive females exceeds that of the males by 15 to 20 millimeters.
In spring, calling starts shortly before sunset and continues until around 5 a.m. the next morning. The males choose call places mainly in the shallow bank area under low vegetation; calling males rarely swim on the water. Usually 15 to 20 males form a call community in which phases of high call activity alternate with pauses. Each call community calls in its own rhythm.
Reputation and mating behavior
If the males are active on call, they behave territorially towards other males. If migrating males come too close to placeholders, they utter these calls for the territory and jump at the intruders. The area that the toads claim is usually about 50 centimeters to the side and about one meter to the front. When the number of males is high in spring, the minimum distances are smaller; in late summer and autumn, when the number of calling toads is low, they increase to around two meters.
Females ready to mate migrate to the waters in the evening after the males have taken their call places. The females seem to specifically select males and prefer those whose mating calls are characterized by low pitch. These are the big males. The deliberate choice is particularly noticeable when the number of calling males is small.
Reproduction and development
A female lays around 12,000 eggs in a gelatinous double strand in the water, which are fertilized by the male through external insemination. After just a few days, the tadpoles hatch , which initially still have external gills and mainly feed on organic material.
food
Adult panther toads mainly eat insects and their larvae as well as spiders ; in addition, young mice also belong to their range of prey. Young animals feed on ants and other "bite-sized" small animals.
literature
- Mamdouh Saad Ahmed Akef, Hans Schneider: Reproduction, calls and calling of the Leopard Toad in Egypt (Anura: Bufonidae). In: Zoologischer Anzeiger, Volume 225, 1990, pp. 123-132.
- Mills Tandy, R. Keith: Bufo of Africa. In: WF Blair (Ed.): Evolution in the genus Bufo. Texas University Press, 1972, pp. 119-170.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Mamdouh Saad Ahmed Akef, Hans Schneider: Reproduction, calls and calling of the Leopard Toad in Egypt (Anura: Bufonidae). In: Zoologischer Anzeiger, Volume 225, 1990, pp. 123-132.
Web links
- Sclerophrys regularis in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2013.1. Posted by: Mills Tandy, Mark-Oliver Rödel, Malcolm Largen, John Poynton, Stefan Lötters, Sherif Baha El Din, Helen Gerson, 2006. Retrieved November 19, 2013.