Cane Toads in Australia Fact Sheet

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Cane toad Fact sheet Unit 3 FACTSHEET Cane toads in Australia The cane toad (scientific name – Bufo marinus) is a large stocky amphibian with dry warty skin. They naturally occur in Southern USA and the tropics of South America. History In 1935 cane toads were deliberately introduced into far north Queensland to try and control cane beetles, a major pest of sugar cane. It is thought that the conditions within the canefields were not suitable for the cane toad and it quickly moved on to discover an Australian landscape full of suitable places to breed and feed. Cane toads continue to spread across much of Australia. They can be found in most parts of Queensland, northern New South Wales, around Kakadu in the Northern Territory and recently the Kimberly in Western Australia. Where they occur there are always large numbers of toads. Habitat Adult cane toads can invade most warm habitats including mangroves, rainforests, grasslands, woodlands and even sand dunes. They are active at night during the warmer months and take shelter in moist crevices during the day or when the weather is cold and dry. Unlike Australia’s native frogs, cane toads do not need to keep their skin moist. A toad can loose up to 50% of its body water and cover large areas at night in the search for food and water. Breeding During the breeding season, male cane toads settle near lakes, rivers and even backyard ponds and start to call in the hope of attracting a female. Cane toads lay their eggs in still or slow flowing water. Females can produce between 8,000 – 35,000 eggs at a time and usually breed twice a year. The eggs hatch after a couple of days and tiny tadpoles emerge. Tadpoles develop into baby toads or toadlets after several weeks or many months depending on water temperature and access to food. Diet Adult cane toads will eat almost anything it can fit in its mouth including dead animals and pet food scraps. Beetles, honey bees, ants and crickets are mostly on the cane toads’ menu but they have also been known to eat smaller cane toads, native frogs, small snakes and lizards and occasionally small mammals. A cane toad tadpole with eat algae and aquatic plants..

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Cane Toad Control Should Be Based on Evidence Not Guesswork Submission to Inquiry Into Controlling the Spread of Cane Toads
Cane toad control should be based on evidence not guesswork Submission to Inquiry into controlling the spread of cane toads Professor Rick Shine December 2018 Abstract Extensive scientific research (mostly, funded by government) has been conducted into methods to limit the spread and impact of cane toads in Australia. Control efforts that ignore that knowledge base are unlikely to be useful. The impact of cane toads on native wildlife has often been exaggerated; the impact is devastating but is limited to a small group of species (apex predators) and to a relatively short timescale. Thus, control of toads over large areas where they already occur would have little benefit for biodiversity, and likely is impossible without resorting to methods (e.g., genetic manipulation) whose risks outweigh the benefits. The huge clutch sizes and great mobility of toads render localised control efforts ineffective within the toads’ main range in tropical Australia; vast effort (primarily into hand-collecting) has failed to slow the march of the toads, or to decrease their abundances. In contrast, control of toads is feasible in isolated populations on islands, and/ or near the southern edge of the species’ distribution. Such populations have been successfully extirpated by using a combination of methods including hand-collection, fencing of waterbodies, trapping of adult toads, and pheromone(chemical)-based trapping of tadpoles. Cane toads frequently are translocated to sites far outside their main range (usually by hiding in cargo in trucks), so we need effective methods to eradicate such satellite populations before they can spread. I identify four priorities for future investment: (1) new pheromone-based techniques for tadpole eradication; (2) deployment of aversion- inducing stimuli to train vulnerable predators not to eat toads; (3) a recently-identified pathogen that causes lethal amoebic dysentery to cane toads in Australia; and (4) plans to exclude toads from the Pilbara by restricting their access to water along the dryland corridor south of Broome.
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Accessory Publication
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