Anaxyrus quercicus                                            Photo Claire Sunquist ©

The oak toad is the smallest toad in the United States, with a maximum length of 1.5 inches. Gray to almost black in color it has a yellowish stripe down the center of the back and three to four pairs of light-edged dark spots on the back.

The oak toad is found in longleaf pine-turkey oak forest, sand pine scrub and dry hammocks. It breeds in roadside ditches and temporary ponds. The call sounds like a baby chick, a continuous ‘cheep, cheep, cheep’. When these small toads call at close range or in large numbers, they can cause hearing loss.

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