The Problem: The Cane Toad (Bufo Marinus) is Australia’s greatest ever threat to native fauna since man arrived.The History: Introduced as a pest control in the sugar cane fields in the 1930’s it spread quickly and finding no predators, has now reached approx 200 million spread over Northern Australia, and because the are
- Very poisonous (they have a toxic skin), and kill predators that eat or bite them, and
- Voracious predators and will eat anything that they can get their mouths round e.g. Small mammals, insects, fish, Chihuahuas etc etc.
- The breed like hell, and with no predators the young survive in massive numbers.
They are a very real threat to native species diversity. They have few predators in their native Hawaii and are controlled by illness, rather than Hawaiians species. Introducing new bacteria’s would be risky and in any case their range is too great now.
