That's a Gulf Coast Toad, BUFO VALLICEPS. We've often met them, but they vary in appearance, so it's a good idea to add this image to our various shots.

from the July 11,, 2010 Newsletter issued from Hacienda Chichen Resort beside Chichén Itzá Ruins, central Yucatán, MÉXICO
TOAD AMONG THE BANANAS
During the dry season, all around the Hacienda grounds, we scatter black plastic troughs filled with water for wild animals. Now that the rains have begun they're not really needed, but nobody has bothered to take them up. The other day as I passed such a tray in the banana plantation something was rippling its water so I took a look. You can see the ripple-maker below:

That's a Gulf Coast Toad, BUFO VALLICEPS, about the size of a smallish Bullfrog. Jonathan Campbell in Amphibians and Reptiles of Northern Guatemala, the Yucatán, and Belize reports that this species' dorsal (back) coloration is highly variable, and may be orangish, tan, yellowish tan, reddish brown, brown, or pale gray. I think that our frog's apparent greenness is mostly caused by algae in the water. The only other large toad it could be confused with here is the much larger Giant or Cane Toad, whose parotoid glands -- tumorlike bulges behind the eyes -- are proportionally much larger. You can see our Gulf Coast Toad's head below:

I hear lots of frogs and toads calling at night, especially after rains. Back during the dry season it was easy to believe that we had no frogs around here, but now what a pleasure to hear all their different calls filtering between the hut's pole walls as night comes on.

from the May 26, 2007 Newsletter issued from  Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, QUERÉTARO, MÉXICO
MILLIONS OF TADPOLES & TOADS
p where the reservoir narrows between steep slopes and wet-season shallows now stand as Frogfruit-mantled terraces, you wouldn't believe the numbers of tadpoles. Well, you can get an idea from the picture below:

That image shows thousands of pea-sized tadpoles alongshore, and similar tadpole superfluity continued up and down the bank a long way. How on Earth could there be enough food for them to eat? I assumed the water was muddy because the previous afternoon cattle had been wading in it to keep cool, but maybe it was just kept churned up by tadpoles.

And maybe the overabundance of tadpoles explains the hoards of tiny toads swarming through the vegetation mantling the former mudflats, where there's a toad about every half foot. Most toads are pea-sized but some are half grown and at least two looked like adults. One adult jumped from my path leaving a silvery jet of pee in his wake and the other remained cozily in a big mud crack as I took the picture shown at the right.

The toad in the mud crack seems to be the Gulf Coast Toad, BUFO VALLICEPS, distributed from the US Gulf Coast through Mexico to Costa Rica. I can't be certain that the tadpoles and immature toads are the same species, but it's a good bet.

In fact, when I camped out last Saturday night near where the above photos were taken I was awakened in the night twice by sounds. First, a little shower came very pleasantly pecking on my tent roof around midnight and, second, not long afterwards, a placidly thunderous chorus of multitudinous toad-calls awoke me, sounding exactly like the Gulf Coast Toads heard in the .WAV audio file online (click on the words "Bufo_vali_M.WAV" at the "Link" link) found at http://www.biodiversity.bz/find/resource/profile.phtml?dcid=21999.