About the Giant Toad Drawing
I have encountered these immense toads and their close relatives in Mexico and Central America, as well as introduced populations in southern Florida. I have also seen them in Queensland, Australia, where they are almost universally known as Cane Toads. The animal portrayed in Mama Grande was photographed by W. W. Lamar in Peru and represents the South American Giant Toad, Rhinella marina.
Large females can be particularly imposing, with broad heads, massive bodies, heavily textured skin, and enormous parotoid glands behind the eyes. These glands produce potent defensive toxins that discourage many would-be predators. In their native range, Giant Toads are impressive but ordinary members of tropical ecosystems. In places where people have introduced them, however, those same defenses can have severe ecological consequences.
Cane Toads were released in Queensland in 1935 in an unsuccessful attempt to control beetles damaging sugarcane. They subsequently spread across much of northern Australia. Native predators that attempt to eat them can be poisoned by their toxins, and the invasion has contributed to serious declines in several reptiles and mammals. Seeing them in Queensland was therefore very different from encountering these toads within their native range.
In Mama Grande, I emphasized the female’s immense size and formidable presence. Her broad face, pronounced cranial ridges, enormous parotoid glands, and rough folds of skin dominate the composition, while her direct gaze gives her a calm but commanding personality.
Mama Grande is a graphite wildlife drawing of a female Giant Toad (Rhinella marina) from Peru by Michael E. Dorcas for Tantilla Art. Reference photograph courtesy of W. W. Lamar.