DailyFrogs-FireBelliedToad

𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒂𝒚! 🐸 Fire-Bellied Toad!

Bombina bombina, commonly called the European Fire-bellied Toad, is a medium sized frog with warty backs and red-and-black mottled bellies.

When threatened, they lift up their arms or flip themselves over to reveal their red coloration, trying to warn predators that they are toxic and bad to eat. There’s actually a fun German word for this, Unkenreflex!

Their preferred habitats are lowland ponds and marshes without too much woody vegetation, though they’ll also make do with lake edges in reed beds or floodplains, monching on small invertebrates. When it gets cold in the winter, they hibernate by burrowing into dirt or a rotting log and entering a state of torpor.

In breeding season, females lay 15-40 eggs, which will hatch in about a week. The tadpoles will develop for about a month, turning into 1.5" small adults which will eventually grow to be about 2-2.25" long.