![]() ![]() ![]() They’re named for hard, sharp-edged, sickle-shaped spades on their hind feet, which biologists think helps them dig into soil. The Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife website said spadefoots are neither a true frog nor a true toad, but belong to a primitive amphibian family. ![]() “They are fantastic burrowers and can corkscrew themselves into even firmly packed sand in seconds.” ![]() “Eastern spadefoot toads spend most of their lives underground and can survive long periods of drought in very dry, sandy environments, a very difficult habitat for frogs and toads, which need to maintain moist skin at all times,” Windmiller said in an e-mail. But they were unable to find any of the elusive toads, said Beaulieu, probably because of the severe drought that likely kept the spadefoots in their burrows, deep beneath the sand. After three hours of cruising through the refuge, he found 21 more of the unusual little amphibians, happily hopping around in the rain.īeaulieu had signed on with biologist Bryan Windmiller, executive director of Concord-based Grassroots Wildlife Conservation, last summer to help conduct a spadefoot survey of the refuge, which stretches from Newburyport into Newbury, Rowley, and Ipswich. Beaulieu said he was excited to see his first eastern spadefoot in the wild. ![]()
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