The significance of color change in newly metamorphosed American toads (Bufo a. americanus) Article

Heinen, JT. (1994). The significance of color change in newly metamorphosed American toads (Bufo a. americanus) . JOURNAL OF HERPETOLOGY, 28(1), 87-93. 10.2307/1564685

cited authors

  • Heinen, JT

authors

abstract

  • Toads showed no tendency to change color as a function of desiccation or temperature. Toads kept on light or dark substrates could darken or lighten an average of two Munsell Color Values over a 2 h period. Actively-hunting garter snakes Thamnophis sirtalis caught more dark-matched than light-matched toads on a light-colored background (sand), but there was a difference in capture rates between dark- and light-matched toads on a dark-colored background (top soil). Both dark- and light-matched toads preferred the dark background, and toads moved less frequently on the dark background. The ground color of animals caught in the wild on sunny afternoons showed a positive relationship with the background color of the substrate on which they were first observed. -from Author

publication date

  • January 1, 1994

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 87

end page

  • 93

volume

  • 28

issue

  • 1