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Common Spadefoot

Amphibians

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The common spadefoot is a burrowing toad of Central Europe and Western Asia, family Pelobatidae, distinguished by a hard, sharp-edged tubercle on each hind foot that it uses to dig backward into sandy soil. It is also known as the garlic toad, for the pungent, garlic-like odor its skin secretes when handled or threatened. It spends most of the year underground by day, emerging at night to forage and gathering at ponds to breed in spring.

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