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The Eastern Spadefoot looks like a toad and even hops like a toad, but it differs from our true toads in having vertical pupils (toads have horizontal pupils) and relatively smooth skin with small, scattered reddish-tipped warts (true toads are much, much wartier). The Spadefoot has a squat body, fairly short hind legs, and a single elongate curved black digging spur (the “spade”) on each hind foot; toads also have digging spurs on their hind feet. The Spadefoot has the most beautiful eyes of any Kentucky amphibian, featuring a golden, bronze, or yellow iris with large black pupils. Body color is quite variable; a Spadefoot can be plain dark brown to light brown or tan but many individuals have a pair of whitish to yellowish curved stripes arranged like reversed parentheses and some have patches of yellow along the sides of the body.
Eastern Spadefoots are excellent burrowers and much of their time is spent underground in upland woods with sandy soils. They emerge from the ground to breed during heavy rains and thunderstorms, laying eggs in temporary pools or flooded fields. After breeding, they quickly leave the breeding sites and return to their underground retreats. In Kentucky, Spadefoot choruses have been heard both day and night from early January through October but most breeding takes place from April through July. The Eastern Spadefoot is wide-ranging in Kentucky but is uncommon in some areas and completely absent from the Bluegrass Region.
Like a Pickerel Frog, an Eastern Spadefoot can ooze liquid from its skin that irritates the mucus membranes of predators and can kill other amphibians. The skin secretion smells very similar to crushed lightning bugs.
Male Spadefoots generally call while floating in shallow water; the voice is a mournful bawl repeated every 5 to 10 seconds.