Home > Giant Neotropical Toad

The toads will eat almost anything up to the size of a mouse or small bird and have even been known to attempt to eat ping pong balls. They are active primarily at night, ranging far away from water, which they visit only to mate and lay eggs.

This toad was introduced into Hawai'i in 1932 from Puerto Rico to control injurious insects in the sugar cane fields and took the name cane toad. However, in Hawai'i today, they are known as Bufos or sometimes Giant Marine Toad.

1 Introduction into Australia

Introduced to Australia from Hawai'i in 1935 in an attempt to control the Cane grubs devastating sugar cane crops, the Cane Toad proved well-suited to its new environment but uninterested in the grubs, which live below the soil, or the beetles the grubs grow into, which fly well above it. Though originally only 40 toads were released in QueenslandQueensland State flag ( In detail) Coat of Arms ( In detail) Capital Brisbane Governor HE Ms Quentin Bryce Premier Peter Beattie Area — Land — Marine — Total 1 730 648 km² 121 994 km² 1 852 642 km² Population (2002) Density 3 729 000 2. 15/km² Time zone U, a fertile female can produce up to 40,000 offsping in a year; the tadpoles of Cane toads mature earlier than other tadpoles in Australia, limiting their competition options for food. The toad has no predators in Australia, except perhaps the occasional attack by the Torresian CrowThe Torresian Crow Corvus orru , also occasionally called the Australian Crow is about the same size (50-55 cm in length) as the Eurasian Carrion Crow but with a more robust bill and slightly longer legs. It has the typical white iris of the other Austral that has learned how to kill them safely. In the past 70 years the toads have steadily spread from QueenslandQueensland State flag ( In detail) Coat of Arms ( In detail) Capital Brisbane Governor HE Ms Quentin Bryce Premier Peter Beattie Area — Land — Marine — Total 1 730 648 km² 121 994 km² 1 852 642 km² Population (2002) Density 3 729 000 2. 15/km² Time zone U along the north coast and towards the center of the continent. The saga of the Cane toad in Australia was popularized by the film Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (1987) which tells the tale with a humorous edge and is often shown in Environmental Science courses.