Where Do Toads Go During the Day? Burrows and Hiding Spots

Where exactly do toads hide by day?

Toads choose places that stay cool and moist when the sun is up. Typical daytime shelters for the American toad and the European common toad include:

• Their own shallow burrows in loose, sandy or crumbly soil, often only a few centimeters deep.
• Under objects such as logs, flat stones, boards, roof tiles, plant pots and wood piles.
• Leaf litter and dense plants, including the base of hedges, ferns and broad-leaved garden plants.
• Old burrows and crevices, such as abandoned rodent holes, gaps in stone walls and spaces under tree roots.
• Human structures, including porches, decks, boardwalks, window wells, sheds and compost heaps.

What these places share is shade, contact with damp ground and a tight fit. A toad pressed into a hollow loses much less water than one sitting in open air.

Why toads stay hidden during the day

The main reason is water. Amphibian skin lets water pass through it easily, and toads also use their skin to breathe in part. Although toad skin is thicker and drier than frog skin, a toad sitting in hot sun and dry wind can lose water quickly. Toads also take up water through a thin, permeable patch on the belly, pressing it against damp soil.

The second reason is safety. Many birds hunt by day, and a toad in the open is easy to spot. Hiding during daylight and hunting at night, when many of the insects, slugs and earthworms they eat are active, makes good sense. The prey side of this story is in What do toads eat?

Temperature matters too. Toads are cold-blooded, so they rely on their surroundings to stay in a comfortable range. Underground or under a log, the temperature changes much less than at the surface.

How toads dig burrows

Many true toads are good diggers. An American toad digs backward: it shuffles its hind feet, which carry small, hard “spades,” and slowly sinks rear-first into the soil while turning, until only its eyes and the top of its head show or it disappears completely. Loose soil falls in around it and seals the hole.

The common toad is a less frequent digger and more often uses existing cover, such as a hollow under a log or a gap in a wall, but it will scrape out a shallow resting place. In both species, the same spot is often reused, and over time a favorite shelter becomes a smooth little hollow that fits the toad’s body.

Toads in dry places take burrowing further. Some desert toads of North America spend most of the year buried deep in the soil and only emerge after heavy rain to feed and breed.

Do toads return to the same hiding place?

Yes, many do. Toads usually live in a small home area and know it well. Studies of marked animals show that individuals often come back to the same daytime shelter after a night of feeding, sometimes for weeks on end. In gardens, people often notice the same toad under the same flowerpot or step all summer.

This homing ability works on a larger scale too. Toads remember the way to their breeding ponds and return to the same pond year after year, which is why mass toad crossings happen on the same roads each spring. That story is told in Why do toads migrate?

When do toads come out?

Adult toads usually leave their shelters around dusk and stay active through the night, especially when it is warm and humid. Rain is a strong trigger: on a wet evening, or even on a dull, drizzly day, toads may come out in large numbers. In hot, dry spells they may stay hidden for days and remain inactive.

Newly transformed toadlets behave differently. They are often active in daylight around the edges of ponds, where the ground is damp, before they disperse and adopt the more nocturnal habits of adults.

Where do toads go in winter?

In regions with cold winters, toads hibernate rather than simply hiding for the day. In fall they dig deeper into soft soil, burrow into compost heaps or leaf piles, or use rodent burrows, rock crevices and other sheltered holes. American toads may dig down far enough to stay below the frost line, because, unlike some frogs, they cannot survive being frozen solid.

Hibernating toads slow their body processes right down and stay dormant until the ground warms in spring. Frogs use different winter strategies, from the bottom of ponds to freezing solid; these are compared in Where do frogs go in winter?

How to find toads without harming them

Toads are easiest to see on warm, damp evenings, on paths, lawns and under outdoor lights where insects gather. If you lift a log or stone and find a toad, put the cover back gently in the same position, since it is the animal’s home. Leaving some logs, stones, leaf litter and unmown corners in a garden gives toads the daytime hiding places they need.