the.com/toad
the warty diplomat of the swamp, poisonous to lick and unbothered by your opinion
means A squat, dry-skinned, warty amphibian closely related to the frog, typically living more on land and hopping in short, unhurried bursts.
from From Old English 'tāde' or 'tādige', a word whose deeper roots are genuinely murky — it has no clear cousins in other Germanic languages, so it may be a homegrown English oddity rather than an inheritance. From the same shadowy source we get 'toady', once 'toad-eater', from the old quack-medicine sideshow where an assistant pretended to swallow a 'poisonous' toad so the healer could 'cure' him — making a fawning flatterer forever a swallower of unpleasant things.
- toxic shoulders
- parotoid glands secrete poison behind the eyes
- no drinking
- absorbs water straight through its skin
- winter freeze
- some survive being partially frozen solid
- tongue speed
- strikes prey in milliseconds, faster than blinking
- long haul
- certain toads live over thirty years
cane toad — invasive species in australia since 1935, now over 200 million individuals across the continent
colorado river toad — secretes 5-meo-dmt, a powerful psychedelic compound, found in southwestern usa deserts
golden mantella toad — critically endangered species native only to madagascar, fewer than 100 left in wild