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Denialists, Behold Nessie!!!!

William Parcher said:
I believe that a toad's body is negatively bouyant (it sinks) unless it puts air in its lungs or air sacs (in which case it will float). They don't typically use water as an escape from predators as the frogs do. This is probably because they rely on the poison glands as defense, and their habitat is sometimes distant from water.

This toad ended up 98 meters below either by accident or intentionally. It's hard to speculate why a toad would want to go there. It may have "misjudged" the depth and kept swimming downwards or simply stopped swimming and went into freefall.
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So you think it was an inside job?

William Parcher said:
How he gets back to the shore is another big question. He either has to swim to the surface or crawl out on the substrate. Both are daunting tasks for a toad and it might even be impossible. In either case, he has to use lots of energy. On a full water ascent, he can't stop swimming or he'll sink again. It could be that toads occasionally find themselves this deep, but never return and end up dying down there.
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I was thinking the same thing. These researchers may have simply found a lost toad who will probably drown.

Poor toad. :-(
 
If there's enough dissolved oxygen down there to maintain metabolism, he may not ever die from "drowning". It may eventually come from starvation. Hard to imagine this guy spending many days or even weeks trapped down there and roaming aimlessly - but it could be true.
 
William Parcher said:
If there's enough dissolved oxygen down there to maintain metabolism, he may not ever die from "drowning". It may eventually come from starvation. Hard to imagine this guy spending many days or even weeks trapped down there and roaming aimlessly - but it could be true.
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OK, its time for action!

SAVE THE TOAD!

DRAIN THE LAKE!
 
William Parcher said:
If there's enough dissolved oxygen down there to maintain metabolism, he may not ever die from "drowning". It may eventually come from starvation. Hard to imagine this guy spending many days or even weeks trapped down there and roaming aimlessly - but it could be true.
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Wait, are you saying that the toad can breath the disolved oxygen in the water? I thought you needed gills for that. Adult toads have lungs, not gills, no?

In addition, I thought that the deep part of the lake was pretty oxygen starved.
 
Earlier in the thread it was mentioned that amphibians (we're now talking toads & frogs) can respire transdermally. That means they can breathe through their skin if there is sufficient dissolved oxygen. The follow-up question remains unanswered... What is the dissolved gas situation at that particular depth and location? We don't really know if he is on the bottom, or a shelf or what. As temperature decreases, water is able to contain more oxygen. The oxygen at that location may be less than nearer the surface, but still high enough for a toad to live "The Life Aquatic".

It's a fascinating thing to see and think about. I wonder what the talk is like around the amphibian biologist watercooler after this news.
 
Not only lack oxigen and low temperatures would make this toad's life miserable...
Absence of light is also a factor, since at a depth of 100 meters only 0.53% of the surface light are avaliable. Still considered euphotic zone, but the figure is for oceanic water, with little suspension. I don't think this is the case of Loch Ness.

My opinion? That toad is toast, I mean frozen meat...

Sources:
http://oceansjsu.com/105d/exped_briny/13.html
http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/La-Mi/Light-Transmission-in-the-Ocean.html
http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/04deepscope/background/deeplight/media/diagram3.html
http://science.jrank.org/pages/4836/Ocean-Zones-Water-depth-vs-light-penetration.html
 
I've seen crows/magpies try to eat toads and fly off with them. Perhaps the toad was dropped into the Loch by a bird and then instinctively swam down and down and down and down.....
 
Cuddles said:
Well Loch Ness is 230m deep, so it's a fair bet he's not at the bottom.
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Right. I meant something else. I was proposing it as the "bottom" of the area that the toad was found. Loch Ness isn't 230m deep everywhere. The deepest parts are in two separate narrow trenches.
 
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