NYFalls.com Talk

Years ago (late 90s) I went camping Upstate NY during July. During a rainy night I came across a large toad the size of a small dinner plate. It only walked, didn't hop, was dark brown with some yellow markings scattered, don't remember if it was dots or lines. I know it couldn't be any native species since everything here is only a few inches. What non native species can survive here when winter gets so cold? I don't have a photo back then only had cheap point and shoot and photo did not come out since it was dark. This was campground I saw it. http://www.northwarren.com/index/busine ... round-inc-

We have North American Toads here that can get about 5 inches around when they find a really nice and warm grassland with a lot of insect and worms. All frogs can walk a little. It's not really to their advantage though, as their motions would allow a predator to detect them. I would assume a larger, obese frog would need to walk more often rather than hop.

People can bring frogs from all over north america and Europe and the frogs may survive the winters. High sugar levels of their blood when it reaches a certain temperature, creates a natural anti-freeze, something that is evolutionary--dating way back in the formation of the amphibian, and is found in most frogs. This keeps the water in their blood from crystallizing, and they can survive freezing and revive when they thaw. Even some lizards carry over this trait. So... a pet frog can be released, thrive, grow... and won't find a mate, so it wouldn't reproduce.

This was most definetly not a frog, and this could eat a 5 inch toad, it was bigger than a bullfrog! It had to be cane toad or something similar mabye a pet released.

Toads are frogs, we only tend to categorize the ones that seem "dry" as toads, but there's little other than our perception that support that classification.
And at certain stages of their life-cycle, the perceptual differences completely disappear.

Cane Toads which are not only a popular illegal pet here, are a huge pest in other parts of the world. Released in the wild in upstate NY, don't last a year.