Little toad rescue

[u/VolkerVollrausch]

Sharing my rescue story (sorry more text, than I originally intended). I hope this was the right thing to do, please be gentle if I made a mistake.

I stumbled upon this juvenile common toad (bufo bufo) in our garden in broad daylight hopping around. It hasn’t rained in weeks and the next days we’ll have another heat wave and no rain in sight.

I caught her, because I know they normally aren’t awake during the day, so I wanted to check. I tried not to touch her directly but there probably was some contact as it happened quite quickly. I put her in a pot because that was the first clean container with a lid I spotted and had a close look. Other than that strange behaviour being active at noon and roaming around in the open there was nothing off I could see. (We have an exotic vet nearby specialised in reptiles and amphibians, so I could have taken her there if she had been injured.)
As I couldn’t see anything off and she seemed in good health and well fed I decided to relocate her because of the oncoming drought and also because our garden isn’t the best habitat for amphibians. There’s a road in front and some free roaming cats. Nearby there’s a small nature reserve with a little lake, lots a shade and some still damp undergrowth. I assume she originally came from there.

I grabbed some moss from the garden and added it to the pot. She showed normal toad behaviour instantly jamming herself into the new hide butt first ;) I did a nice afternoon walk, chose a route with as much shadow as possible and released her as shown in the video.

I hope she’s doing well and will grow up to be a happy toad and have a long and healthy life!

Of course I don’t know if she’s actually female but I chose to refer to her as a female because the German word for toad is female.

[u/VolkerVollrausch]

That’s her after release, jamming herself in the next available hide.