This poster celebrates the rugged desert amphibian, the spadefoot toad,
and their courtship choruses after rainstorms! It makes a wonderful gift for anyone who likes frogs or animals in general. Give it for
Valentine's Day, Easter, Christmas, birthdays, or any occasion.
From
my backyard in Carlsbad, New Mexico, I witnessed the spadefoot toads'
summer of love. Spadefoot toads survive the grueling desert heat and
drought by hiding in burrows for up to three years at a stretch. They
emerge for torrential rains and gorge themselves on termites and other
insects. Males sing their courtship songs (which resemble the bleating
of goats) and mate with females in ephemeral pools. The eggs develop
into tadpoles, then toadlets, then miniature spadefoot toads in only a
matter of weeks. The year 2021 had an unusually high abundance of
rainstorms in Southeast New Mexico, resulting in a productive year for
our spadefoots. It was remarkable to witness this miracle of life, from
cacophonous chorus to rapid metamorphosis!
Couch's spadefoot
toad (Scaphiophus couchii) was the dominant species in my neighborhood.
Western green toads (Anaxyrus debilis insidior) also made some
appearances in autumn rainstorms, and I heard calls from New Mexico
spadefoot toads (Spea multiplicata stagnalis) during a spring storm.
I
could write a book about the process of making this poster, from
painting it physically in layers of gouache paint and India ink to
modifying it extensively on my laptop computer. I commonly hit up
Duckduckgo image search for photo references for my artwork. This time,
I used mostly my own photos (and some by my colleague Tristen Gleason,
who rescued many spadefoot tadpoles from drying pools). The project
began in August 2021; it survived my December move to South Florida and
the December crash of my laptop computer. Like a spadefoot toad waiting
for rain, I persisted.
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