User:Beetree321/sandbox

With almost 50 years observing and studying Reptiles and Amphibians, I have noticed that American Toads and Southern Toads are not different colors but they actually change colors according to environment. I noticed this when I was at a hatchery pond the in spring and the toads appeared to be different colors according to where they were sitting around the pond. Several years later I was expanding an existing Garden pond in early spring. I put the black pond liner in and was filling it, the toads were in the pond that night. The next day there were at least 25 or 30 toads in the pond they were all a "Dark Grey". It rained several nights later and red clay sediment covered the black liner, the next day all the toads were "Reddish Brown" similar to the sediment. I couldn't tell if it was gradual process or took several hours. The reason I mention this is I couldn't find any reference to this behavior in any information available to me. I was interested if this behavior had been documented previously. ?????