When was the last time you saw a Horny Toad?

E

El_Oso

500+ Posts
I was just thinking after watching a Texas Monthly Reporter thing on Ol' Rip, the horny toad that was still alive after being sealed in the cornerstone of the old Courhouse in Eastland, Texas for 31 years.

I can't recall a time in the last 10-15 years that I have seen one out in the wild. When I was a kid we used to find these little guys and even bunches of babys in the yard or in fields where we played, Now when I go back home I can't recall having seen one anywhere around my mom's place since I was in Jr or High school. I do remember seeing a few while rabbit hunting but it has been a long long time.

Sad these cute little creatures aren't around for our kids to catch and pet and then let go to eat more ants and grasshoppers.

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i saw one in my entire life about 20 something years ago when i was a kid. i caught the little guy in my backyard and kept him for a day and let him go. i thought he was so damn cool.
 
Used to catch them all the time in a big field over by Burnet Road and 183 (by what used to be Playland Skating Rink). We would actually put our initials in finger nail polish to "mark" them and know if you've caught that one before...or if one of your friends had. They could squirt blood out of their eyes, if I recall. I too have heard fire ants got them.
 
Growing up in Ft. Worth, me, my brother and the neighbor kids saw 'em frequently - we sometimes would catch 'em and play with them. However, by the time I was in HS in the late 60's, we saw them less and less. I bet I have not seen one in the wild since the early to mid 70's.
 
There are still tons of them in western Oklahoma. I think they eat ants. Of course the hated fire ants have not made their way up here yet. Hopefully never will.
 
When I was a lad in the 50's and 60's I could go in the backyard in Austin and find one anytime. We had some relatives that came down from Seattle one summer, I caught some for them, and they ended up in the Seattle Zoo. But, I don't think I've seen a one in about 40 years...It's a shame!
 
I grew up in Sonora in West Texas and they were all over the place. We moved to Austin in 1965 and I only saw one in the wild here.
 
The fire ants have been the cause of their disappearance from these parts, but not directly. What happened is the fire ants killed off their food source, harvester ants. The OP made one bad assumption when he said
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I saw one on Shoal Creek hike and bike about 10-15 years ago. Other than that not since the 70's, when those big flat red ant colonies were still around.
 
I used to play with them in Dallas when I was a boy in the 50's and 60's. I bet I haven't seen one since then. 10 year old boys and large carnivorous birds may have been their greatest predators.
 
The last one I saw in the wild was in the 80's and was on the mid-coast of all places. I had been wade fishing and was walking back on the shore of crushed shell and a small one of about 4-5 inches took off and we chased him down.

When I was a boy in the late 60's and early 70's you could find them anywhere if you looked hard enough. My uncle had a farm near Karnes City and there were freaking everywhere. I would bring a few home for my neighborhood buddies. We would tie strings around their necks with a weight on the other end and put them in the red ant beds found in the empty lots in our subdivision and watch them eat ants.
 
I grew up in Houston. I've never seen a horny toad. I hate fire ants enough for making my lawnmowing job in middle school worse than it already was.
 
I saw a few in the Davis Mountains in 2005

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This guy was almost all the way to the top of Baldy Peak...

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It was really cool to see them because I hadn't seen one since the late 80's, but it was not really cool nearly stepping on this next guy...

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Umpus, your pictures are the kinds of thing that makes me want to kick someone in the groin when they say West Texas is dry and dead.
 
My cousin took a sack full of horny toads to the Boy Scout Jamboree in Valley Forge PA in 1957 and sold them to the yankees for fifty cents each.

Love horny toads. They sit on your palm and stare back at you.
 
Fire ants (and other introduced non-native species) have had a devastating effect on the environment. A good example is the huge reduction in native ant species due to fire ant expansion, which as Sangre pointed out, eliminated the main (only?) food source of the horny toad.
We used to catch them in the vacant lots of Galveston and keep them for a few days as pets growing up on the island in the 1950's. I see one very occasionally still, while hiking or birdwatching, but it is always unexpected and rare.
 
Saw them all of the time in the late 60's, early 70's in Lee
Country.

We saw several at Seminole Canyon about ten years ago.

Very cool little guys.






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We have a deer lease between Stamford and Aspermont (northwest of Abilene) and there are still quite a few out there. In the summer you will 5-6 everytime you go out.

Chief
 
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