Great Basin Spadefoot

The natural habitats of the Great Basin spadefoot include pinyon-juniper, ponderosa pine, and high elevation (up to 2,600 metres or 8,500 feet) spruce-fir forests, semidesert shrubland, sagebrush flats, temperate grasslands, and deserts. They are present in agricultural areas as well. The Great Basin Spadefoot can be found from southern British Columbia through the eastern portions of Washington and Oregon and in southern Idaho. Their range extends throughout all of Nevada and into most of Utah; they are also present in small areas in California, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Adult spadefoots are opportunistic carnivores. Adults have been shown to eat arthropods from the taxa Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, Orthoptera, Trichoptera, Collembola, and Araneae. Ants and beetles are their most common prey. Feeding seems to be generalized and opportunistic; the toads will eat anything they can subdue. Adults hunt in spring and summer, but only at night or during light rains. Spadefoot tadpoles are dimorphic. Within a cohort, some tadpoles have large mouthparts, while others have much smaller mouthparts. As well as consuming other types of food, large-mouthed individuals are cannibalistic, swallowing other tadpoles whole.