Elsing patrol reported seeing " small number of these matt dark grey ones with uniform tiny warts (there’s also another sort - bigger, longer, whiter, with very pronounced and dark warts, rangy looking with a swaggery gait."

 An expert commented "I think it’s just normal variation is skin colouration and texture. Some might be variable between dry and wet and temperature conditions, some is likely permanent. There is a lot we don’t understand well about amphibian skin, in particular about pigmentation.  Frogs get darker with age but it’s unclear how or why."

We speculated whether some toads' skin may have become very dry in the 2022 summer drought and have been permanently changed.