Cane toad threat spreads beyond Australia to Caribbean

By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News

Cane toads, one of the world's most destructive invasive species, have started killing native wildlife outside of Australia.

Cane toads are poisonous, secreting a toxin that kills predators not adapted to eat them, and as a result the toads have caused a decline in native Australian reptiles and marsupials.

Now scientists have discovered that the toads are also killing boa snakes in the West Indies, suggesting that other predators in the Caribbean and elsewhere may also be at risk.

The cane toad is a large toad species, which secretes a powerful bufogenin toxin.

Dr Byron Wilson
University of West Indies

Its native range extends from northern South America through Central America and into the southern United States.

In the early to mid 19th Century, the toad was intentionally introduced to islands in the Caribbean, including Jamaica in 1844, and then through the South Pacific.

The toad was introduced to eat and control pests of sugar cane, including rats and beetles.