Cane toads collected in AustraliaBRENDAN BORRELL
The classic example of an introduced-species-gone-awry gets even worse. Not only do living cane toads regularly kill many of Australia’s endemic predators that hunt and eat the hopping meals, dead toads—common roadkill along Australia’s highways—are threatening local aquatic fauna.
Cane toads have blighted Australia every since the animals were introduced to the continent in order to control beetles that were damaging sugar cane crops. In addition to being largely unsuccessful in controlling the beetle population, the toads bred prolifically, decimating natural predators such as snakes and lizard, which were poisoned by toxins produced by the toad called bufatoxins.
Researchers had assumed that dead toads, which line highways and find their way into streams and ponds, wouldn't pose a threat to aquatic organisms because bufatoxins are ...
