{"id":2235,"date":"2024-04-07T13:05:46","date_gmt":"2024-04-07T03:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thingstodoexploringaustralia.com.au\/?p=2235"},"modified":"2024-05-12T10:19:51","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T00:19:51","slug":"cane-toad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thingstodoexploringaustralia.com.au\/?p=2235","title":{"rendered":"Cane toad"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Cane toads are native to South and mainland Central America where they\u2019re also known as \u2018marine toad\u2019 and \u2018giant\u2019 toad. Since their introduction to Australia in 1935, they\u2019ve continued to cause local extinctions of native animals, and they\u2019re marching their way across the country. They were brought to Australia from Hawaii with the intention of controlling the destructive cane beetle in sugar cane fields in North Queensland.\u00a0<\/p>

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Only 102 cane toads were brought over to be bred (an indication of their breeding potential – 2,400 toads were released). It seemed like a great idea at first, however, the cane beetles and the cane toads rarely crossed paths. Cane beetles live high on the upper stalks of the cane plant, and cane toads can\u2019t jump that far so they barely had any impact!<\/p>


In less than 85 years, the cane toad population has multiplied to epidemic proportions. Now, some scientists estimate that there are more than 200 million cane toads hopping around our continent, wreaking havoc on our ecosystem and expanding across northern Australia at a rate of 50km every year (CTC, 2019).<\/p>


Cane toad are highly adaptable. Their habitat ranges from rainforests, coastal mangroves, sand dunes, shrubs and woodlands. They don\u2019t need much water to reproduce. They can also survive temperatures between 5\u00b0C – 40\u00b0C, so don\u2019t be surprised to find them adapting to survive the cold winters down south (CTC, 2019).
Cane toads have a number of distinguishing features, including:<\/p>