Toxic tucker: the potential impact of cane toads on Australia's reptiles

Abstract

Cane Toads Bufo marinus are a highly successful invasive species, having invaded more than twenty countries in the last 150 years. In Australia, they currently occupy more than 1 million square kilometres. Toads are highly toxic and Australian predators have no evolutionary history with the cardiac toxins in toad skin. As such, toads constitute a novel and extremely toxic prey for Australia's predators. Australia's reptiles are perhaps the largest group likely to be affected by the invasion of the toad. By examining species distributions, we conclude that 59% of agamids, 85% of the varanids and all of Australia's crocodiles and freshwater turtles are potentially at risk from toads. We then a..