American Toad Calling
It is Spring time here in North Carolina, and the warm weather has brought the toads back out from their burrows, and they have come out of hibernation. The American toad, as well as other frogs , have one thing on their mind after they come out of hibernation ,that is reproduction. The male toads call for the females, and the female toads select the males with the loudest calls as their mate. I took this video on the bank of a pond behind my house. Below we see a male American toad who has climbed onto the back of a female who he has attracted with his calls. When a male assumes this position it is called amplexus, which is a fancy word for mating position. As the female releases her eggs into the water in a long string ,then the male fertilizes them. I took this video and photo with a Canon Rebel T4i and Canon 100mm Macro lens. For the lighting I used a Newer CN-160 led light pod mounted to the top of my camera. Now that the weather is warm, and the frogs and toads have come back out and I am working on some documentary clips about frogs and toads of North Carolina.
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