How Long Do Toads Live? Toad Lifespan in the Wild and Captivity

Toad lifespans at a glance

The table below gives commonly cited figures for three well-known toads. Wild figures describe adults that survived the dangerous early stages, and captive records are maximums, not typical ages.

The lesson from these numbers is that toads are capable of long lives, but the average toad in the wild lives far shorter than its potential.

How long do common toads live?

In the wild, adult common toads are thought to live up to about 10–12 years. They mature slowly, usually at three to five years old and sometimes later in cold northern or mountain populations, so a female may breed only a handful of times in her life. Many adults die during the stressful breeding season, and road traffic kills large numbers on their spring migration, which you can read about in Why do toads migrate in spring?

In captivity, common toads have a reputation for great age. The AnAge longevity database lists a maximum of about 40 years, other accounts give 36 years, and a claim of about 50 years is sometimes repeated. Most of these records are old and poorly documented, so the safest statement is that common toads can live well over 30 years under human care.

How long do American toads live?

The American toad of eastern North America has a similar story. Many individuals do not live beyond their first year, and the longest reported lifespan in the wild is about 10 years. Those that survive usually reach breeding size in two to three years.

The best-known record is a captive American toad that lived to 36 years before it was killed in an accident, so it might have lived even longer. That is an extraordinary age for an animal that weighs only a few tens of grams.

Why most toads die young

A single female common toad can lay several thousand eggs in a season, and an American toad up to around 20,000. Only a tiny fraction of these offspring will ever breed. The main dangers change as the toad grows:

• Eggs and tadpoles: dragonfly larvae, diving beetles, water bugs and newts eat tadpoles, and ponds that dry out early can kill a whole year’s brood.
• Toadlets: the newly metamorphosed toads, only about 1 cm (0.4 in) long, are eaten by birds, shrews, beetles and many other animals, and many dry out on hot days.
• Adults: snakes, hedgehogs, otters, herons, crows and birds of prey take adults, despite their skin toxins.

Disease and parasites take a toll too. Lungworms can slow the growth of young common toads, and a parasitic fly, Lucilia bufonivora, lays its eggs on adult toads in Europe, with lethal results. The amphibian chytrid fungus has been recorded in many toad species around the world.

Human activity adds more threats: roads, the loss of breeding ponds, pesticides, pollution and the effects of climate change on hibernation and breeding.

Why toads can live so long

For animals of their size, toads are long-lived, and scientists think several features help:

• A slow pace of life: as cold-blooded animals, toads have low energy needs and spend months each year inactive in hibernation.
• Chemical defenses: toxic skin secretions protect adults from many predators that would otherwise eat them, and evolutionary theory predicts that animals which are hard to kill tend to evolve longer lives.
• Slow maturity: toads grow and mature over several years, then breed repeatedly, which favors bodies built to last.

Growth slows a lot after maturity but often does not stop completely, so very large toads are usually old ones.

How scientists find out a toad’s age

You cannot tell a wild toad’s age just by looking at it. Researchers use two main methods:

• Skeletochronology: like a tree trunk, a toad’s bones lay down one growth ring each year, with a dark line marking the winter pause. Counting the rings in a thin slice of a toe bone gives the toad’s age.
• Mark and recapture: individual toads are marked or identified by their unique patterns, then recorded at the same pond year after year. Long-term studies like this, often helped by volunteers at toad crossings, show how long adults keep returning to breed.

Toads compared with frogs

Toads often outlive frogs of a similar size, partly because their tough skin and toxins protect them and partly because they spend more time hidden. Many small frogs live only a few years in the wild. Still, there are long-lived frogs too, and lifespans differ greatly between species. For a comparison across the group, see How long do frogs live?