General Description: Southwestern Woodhouse's Toads (Anaxyrus woodhousii australis) are a large olive to gray-brown or black toads with scattered dark spots on the back and a light stripe running down the center of the back. The cranial crests are large, and the parotid glands are long and diverging. The cranial crests contact the parotid glands. The voice sounds like the nasal wail of a crying baby.

Taxonomy: Order Frogs and Toads (Anura); Family True Toads (Bufonidae). Formerly Western Woodhouse's Toad (Bufo woodhousii woodhousii) and Woodhouse's Toad (Bufo woodhousii).

Technical Description: Body size to 5 in. Dorsal color gray to black with dark blotches. Dorsal stripe white. Parotid glands long, oval, and diverging. Boss sometimes present. Ventral color light, sometimes with black flecks. Rear of legs with network or yellow and black lines. In males, throat sooty, lower jaw yellow.

Diet: Insects.

Habitat: Sandy areas in a variety of habitats (desert streams, sagebrush, city yards) near slow-moving water.

Range: So far as I can determine, this species is distributed across the southwestern states west and south of the Rocky Mountains, including northwestern Arizona, southern Utah, and eastern Nevada along the Virgin and Colorado rivers.

Breeding: Breeds in spring to early summer, usually after rains. Eggs laid in quiet water. Amplexis pectoral.

Similar Species: Southwestern Toad lacks dorsal stripe, cranial crests weak, parotids round; throat of male pale. See also Western Toad and Red-spotted Toad.

Comments: Call sounds like the nasal crying of a baby lasting to 2.5 seconds. Hybridizes with Southwestern Toad.