Individual cane toads can be grey, yellowish, red-brown, or olive-brown, with varying patterns. Distinct ridges above the eyes run down the snout. The skin of the cane toad is dry and warty. They have a life expectancy of 10 to 15 years in the wild, and can live considerably longer in captivity, with one specimen reportedly surviving for 35 years. Larger toads tend to be found in areas of lower population density. DescriptionĬonsidered the largest species in the Bufonidae, the cane toad is very large the females are significantly longer than males, reaching a typical length of 10 -, with a maximum of 24 cm. The 1988 film Cane Toads: An Unnatural History documented the trials and tribulations of the introduction of cane toads in Australia. The cane toad is now considered a pest and an invasive species in many of its introduced regions.
The common name of the species is derived from its use against the cane beetle (Dermolepida albohirtum), which damages sugar cane. Because of its voracious appetite, the cane toad has been introduced to many regions of the Pacific and the Caribbean islands as a method of agricultural pest control. Its toxic skin can kill many animals, both wild and domesticated, and cane toads are particularly dangerous to dogs. The cane toad has poison glands, and the tadpoles are highly toxic to most animals if ingested. Adults average 10 – in length the largest recorded specimen had a snout-vent length of 24 cm. Its reproductive success is partly because of opportunistic feeding: it has a diet, unusual among anurans, of both dead and living matter. The cane toad is a prolific breeder females lay single-clump spawns with thousands of eggs. marina habitat preferences have long been for open areas. It was discovered in a floodplain deposit, which suggests the R. A fossil toad (specimen UCMP 41159) from the La Venta fauna of the late Miocene in Colombia is indistinguishable from modern cane toads from northern South America. It is a member of the genus Rhinella, which includes many true toad species found throughout Central and South America, but it was formerly assigned to the genus Bufo. The cane toad (Rhinella marina), also known as the giant neotropical toad or marine toad, is a large, terrestrial true toad native to South and mainland Central America, but which has been introduced to various islands throughout Oceania and the Caribbean, as well as Northern Australia.
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