Mar

9

2007
 
 

Toxic toads hit turbo button



Cane toadInvasive species’ colonization rate accelerates in Australia

As if the impact of introduced cane toads Bufo marinus wasn’t bad enough, comes the revelation that the rate at which they’re invading northern Australia is increasing. A group of University of Sydney biologists led by Ben Phillips recently published their alarming findings in Austral Ecology. The poisonous amphibians – which currently have no significant predators, yet lay waste to any native wildlife smaller than a red kangaroo (OK, perhaps that’s a slight exaggeration :) ) – are moving at unprecedented speeds through the Northern Territory’s tropics. One individual radiotracked by Phillips’ team racked up a new anuran record, traveling almost 22 km in just 30 days. With the invasion front moving at such breakneck speeds, wildlife management authorities need to react fast to get the problem licked.

Source: Phillips BJ, Brown GP, Greenless M, Webb JK & Shine R (2007) Rapid expansion of the cane toad (Bufo marinus) invasion front in tropical Australia. Austral Ecology DOI: 10.1111/j.1442-9993.2007.01664.x

Image © Mike Carlson

Related article in Conservation magazine: Evolutionary Tinkering

Filed Under Habitat, Invasive species, Monitoring | 

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One Response to “Toxic toads hit turbo button”

  1. Walking canes : Journal Watch Online on October 16th, 2007 10:37 pm

    […] hopped across, more than a million square kilometers of native wildlife. Along the way they’ve evolved longer legs and larger bodies, helping those at the invasion front to cover more territory than their already-settled […]

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