Last summer, Kansas State University veterinarian Gretel Tovar-Lopez headed south on Interstate 35 bound for Oklahoma State University, home to a colony of Sonoran desert toads. She and her colleagues wanted to give each toad a neurological exam to find out whether what’s normal in one species is normal in another.
It turns out it’s not. In fact, clinicians know little about what’s neurologically normal for toads, given scant research into the matter.
So why does it matter what’s normal for a toad?…