Cane+Toad+-+Riley

The Cane Toad (//Bufo Marinas//)


 * General Information**:

The cane toad is a large toad native to Central and South America. This toad has two large glands behind its eyes that ooze highly toxic venom. They range from 10-15 centimeters in length and can weigh up to 5 lbs. Their colors range from brown to a mustard yellow and its under belly is a grey or whitish color. Its warty back has leathery skin, and depending on the sex of the toad the number of warts can vary. The male would have more warts than the female would (Animal Planet News).


 * Detailed Description:**

The cane toad has a pretty decent life cycle length of about 5 years. The thing that makes them extremely harmful to the environment is the fact that they reproduce at very quickly. One toad can lay an unfathomable 35,000 eggs twice a year (Cameron)!

They're diet consists of just about anything that will fit in their mouth, but their diet primarily consists of insects. As a result of their immense numbers they eradicate small animals over a wide area in a very short period of time. The natural response for humans to say is to introduce an animal that would predate on the toad. But because the toad is highly toxic no predator that would or could be introduced would be able to consume it and survive (austmus.gov).


 * Habitat and Distribution:**

The cane toad is mainly known for its vast growth in Australia but has now spread to Hawaii and Florida. In order to survive this toad needs a moist environment mainly around a decent size source of water like a lake, marsh, bog, swamp, or a pond.


 * Ecological Impacts:**

The cane toad causes major problems because of its appetite. Besides some sharks the cane toad is one of the few animals that would rather eat first and ask questions later. It is said that some of these toads have actually died trying to eat an animal that was too big to fit in its mouth. So it’s obvious that one toad can cause major problems to an ecosystem but try multiplying that problem by over twenty-thousand! Probably the biggest issue with these amphibians is once again their reproductive rate. One toad can lie 8000-35,000 eggs at a time and often do this twice a year (Cameron)

There aren't really positive impacts with these ravenous invaders. These great predators do control the insect numbers and keep the numbers to small mammals to a minimum which is probably the only positive thing about these animals.

These toads are very harsh to an ecosystem's biodiversity since they'll eat just about anything which means the numbers of all its prey drastically decrease. It's even worse because of their astonishing numbers. In a single forest a group of cane toads can easily clear out all of the small reptiles, small mammals, other amphibians, insects, and birds. As a result of that, the predators in that forest begin to decrease because the prey for the predators are being eaten by these toads.

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Luckily there is no other toad such as the cane toads in the south west United States so there is no hybridization.

**__ History __**
The cane toad is mainly known for its devastation in Australia. It was introduced there to reduce the number of cane beetles. Unfortunately this strategy back fired when the toads didn’t reduce the number of the beetles and the cane toad began to multiply at its extreme rate. The cane toad got here by means of migration. Originating the tropics of South America the cane toad was introduced to the United States to reduce sugar cane pests but that backfired and they continued to spread. The chances of the toad moving even more north in the U.S. are unlikely because of the climate conditions the toad needs to survive but the possibilities of the cane toad spreading all along the southern states are very real.

Too limit the numbers of cane toads in Australia the government has set up exclusion fences which costs around 6 million dollars to build and to maintain it but its definitely worth the expenses. Here in the United States the cane toad isn’t as serious as a problem as it is in Central America, South America, and in Australia so the U.S. hasn’t had the need to provide some sort of control effort, yet! Here in the U.S. there aren’t control measures to control these small beasts but in Australia as said before there are fences being built to keep these toads out of national parks.  Works Cited Cameron, Elizabeth. “Cane Toads, Giant Toads, or Marine Toads.” __Bufo Marinas__. June 2003. Australian Museum. 23 Nov. 2008 . “Cane Toad.” __Leeward__ __Community College__. 2008. Honolulu Zoo. 23 Nov. 2008 . “Toxic Toads Evolving Super-Fast.” __Animal Planet News__. Discovery.com. 23 Nov. 2008 .
 * __Control__**