By Andrew Brinker
Geographic Range
Found from southern Canada down through the US and into Northern Mexico (Bockstanz and Cannatella, 1998).
Habitat
-Scaphiopus bombifrons- makes its home in the great plains. Grasslands with loose soil, and cultivated fields (Bockstanz and Cannatella, 1999). It burrows deeply and is capable of undergoing extended periods of time with no food, and will emerge from its burrow to feed at irregular intervals when the weather is favorable (Bartlett, 1999).
Terrestrial Biomes:
savanna or grassland 
.
Physical Description
-Scaphiopus bombifrons- is 1.5 inches to 2.5 inches. The record size is 2 9/16 inches. It has a pronounced boss between the eyes (Conant, 1998). The color varies from gray to brown and often has a greenish tinge. There are four vague longitudinal stripes often present on its back. The small warts on its back are tipped with yellow or orange. Vertical pupils are like a cat's. Hind legs have single, wedge-shaped tubercle, or spade on inner surface. Toes are webbed. The skin is relatively smooth and moist like a frog, but they have some warts on their backs and live on land like a toad (Gov. of Alberta, 1999).
Reproduction
-Scaphiopus bombifrons- mates from May through August. The factor that affects breeding most is rain. Despite such a large window for breeding, as soon as the rain begins they breed. They mate and lay eggs in temporary ponds. Eggs are laid in clusters of 10-250 attached to vegetation, a few centimeters below the surface (Gov. of Alberta, 1999). They are explosive breeders. The eggs hatch within 48 hours and the tadpoles develop within 21-40 days (Gov. of Alberta, 1999). The tadpoles can reach a length of 68 mm. They are colored light grey or brown on top and lighter underneath.
The mating call is short and sounds somewhat like a duck. There are two distinct calls. The first is a short resonant bleat of approximately 0.5 seconds at intervals of 0.5-1 second. The second call is a low-pitched raspy snore lasting approximately 1 second (Bockstanz and Cannatella, 1998).
Behavior
A nocturnal animal, hence the vertical pupils. They are hardly seen without rain. It burrows deeply underground backwards using the "spade" on its back feet.They burrow down backwards in a corkscrew-like motion. They have been found as deep as one meter below the surface(Gov. of Alberta, 1999).
Food Habits
-Scaphiopus bombifrons- eats a variety of invertebrates including ants and beetles. Another favorite is the earthworm (Gov. of Alberta, 1999).
Conservation Status
IUCN Red List: [link]:
Not Evaluated.
In Alberta it is on the Blue List, which means it is considered at risk, or vulnerable (Gov. of Alberta, 1999.) At the same time, this is a very common though seldom seen anuran in the United States.
Other Comments
-Scaphiopus bombifrons- has a unique skin secretion when irritated. The secretions smell vaguely like garlic, are distasteful, and may cause allergic reactions (Bartlett, 1999).
Contributors
Andrew Brinker (author), Michigan State University.
James Harding 
(editor), Michigan State University.
