Cimarron National Grasslands ? They found no green toads, but searchers found plenty of other wildlife here during a weekend outing.

Blame it on the weather.

If there were any of the elusive toads about in their one-time home range, they weren’t inclined to venture out into the 100-degree heat.

“If there’s any at all, they’ll be hiding out under the rocks, where it would be cooler,” said Travis Taggart, curator of herpetology for the Sternberg Museum in Hays. “When it gets this hot, just about any reptile or amphibian is going to take cover.”

Taggart led a group of about 50 people from across the state on a Kansas Herpetological Society field trip to scour the hills of far southwest Kansas for green toads.

They found only an abundance of scorpions, six species of snakes and one laid-back horned lizard.

The toads disappeared in the 1930s when withering drought brought Dust Bowl conditions to the area. Taggart released 422 green toads in the canyons in 1992 and 1993, hoping they’d re-establish themselves in their natural habitat.

Because of the blisteringly hot conditions Saturday and Sunday, Taggart wasn’t surprised that none of the 2-inch-long toads made an appearance.

That’s not to say the area was devoid of reptilian life.

Larry Miller, a 30-year veteran teacher, spied a fat, flat critter on the ground and caught it on the first try.

Commonly known as a horned toad, it wasn’t a toad at all, but a lizard with a penchant for tasty ants. Miller, a ninth-grade science teacher from Topeka, said he has been interested in herpetology the study of reptiles and amphibians since his childhood on a farm.

“My dad knew well that snakes ate mice and rats,” Miller said. “He told me I’d better not ever kill one.”

Although green toads were the main quarry, society members also caught and catalogued any other reptile and amphibian they found. All were later released where caught.

Keen-eyed Jeremy Washburn, 16, from rural Elk County, caught a three-foot-long glossy snake that was hanging out in a ditch.

A glossy snake looks somewhat like a common bull snake, but its scales have a sheen as if it had been coated with varnish.

“We had a field guide with us, and I saw one at camp once, so I knew it was safe to pick up,” Washburn said.

The catch also included seven prairie rattlesnakes, two of which coiled up and took aim at anything that moved, including society photographers who moved in for a closeup.

“There’s been only one venomous snake-bite death in Kansas in the last 50 years,” said Joe Collins, whose wife, Suzanne, is president of the state society. “But these prairie rattlers can put a serious bite on you.”

Joe Collins, a Kansas Universtiy professor emeritus of herpetology, who co-authored the Peterson Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians, says field trips can help to allay the public’s fears about reptiles.

“We’re trying to raise several generations with the idea that a good snake is a live snake, not a dead one,” he said. “We find that we really can’t do a lot with most adults who have a fear of snakes, unless they have kids they’re chaperoning to one of these events. They see the kids aren’t afraid to touch a snake, so it helps lessen their fear.”