Toads are my favourite, but don’t tell frogs
I have had a passion for toads for many years. I love them for all kinds of reasons, but when a big part of your job is connecting people with wildlife, it’s great to find an animal that sits still long enough to be scrutinised by a young person (this is definitely not a frog’s strong point)
They are majestic (they have definitely got that regal pose going on), tough (they can walk over 3 miles to get to their breeding pond in their spring migration), and have beautiful coppery metallic eyes. Also, if you tweak a boy toad’s bottom in spring, it chirps! (Not that I am endorsing toad molestation!)