Drew Bouwkamp 2

The Invasion of Cane Toads
Bufo marinus

The cane toads are a disaster that started in the early 1900’s. When they were introduced into many different areas like Australia, Hawaii, Florida, Philippians, and a couple other places, they caused a lot of trouble. They were introduced into those areas to help control bugs that were eating sugar cane. Cane Toads are a bother and just cause to much trouble and mess up the order of things like the food chain. They kill all of their predators or make them sick.
Cane toads are usually found in South America and Central America. It habitat is usually by rainforests, on sand dunes, and wet lands. They thrive best when they are in warm tropical areas. They usually eat small animals or insects.
The Cane Toads scientific name is bufo marinus. Cane Toads have dry warty skin and it is also heavily built. It has large glands on each of its shoulders and between its eyes that produce a milky toxin that makes animals and humans sick and it sometimes makes them die. They are 10-17.5 cm from nose to tail. Cane Toads are usually nocturnal. They can’t jump as well as most toads and frogs. And it also eats almost anything that fits in its mouth. They absorb their water through its skin rather than drinking it. Cane toads usually weigh about 6 pounds when it reaches adulthood. They are usually an olive-brown color with a yellowish underbelly.
Cane Toads are considered invasive in many areas including Australia, Hawaii, Florida, and Philippians. In Australia, they were sent to control bugs that would eat sugar cane. But it got out of control. The over population of them caused problems. So, people caused this issue and we need to stop it. Cane Toads cause their predators to get sick and sometimes die. They were introduced into Hawaii by humans and they cause great deal of trouble. Also in Florida and the Philippians humans brought them there and they are killing animals.
In all of these areas they are harming the natural order of things like the food chain and peoples pets like dogs. In these areas peoples animals are just in their backyards when there is a toad, a Cane Toad in the backyard and the animal just goes to check it out when it spreads its milky toxin from its glands and the animal becomes sick and sometimes dies. In Hawaii, there have been reported over 50 dogs have died because of Cane Toads milky toxin. This happens in all the places that they have invaded and even more. They invade yards and eat and drink from dog bowls. Where they are invasive species they don’t have many natural predators. So they over populate those areas. Since they have no natural predators it means they have predators that are not natural. When the not natural predator attacks it and tries to eat it, it produces its milky toxin and makes its predator die or get really sick. And that messes up the natural order of things. An alligator eats an animal, right. So when all of the alligators die there gets an over population of the alligator prey and then it eats to much food and eventually they all die out.
This crisis is really bad, and action is being taken in all of the areas were the Cane Toad are invading. Every year in Australia there is a day were all of the locals of a town try to catch all of the Cane Toads that they can to stop the over population of them. But, there are just too many. When they first arrived there were only 100. The estimation now is in the millions. When they went out they caught about 10,000 which is a lot, but not compared to the population of them in Australia. There is an organization in Australia called Kimberly Toad Busters. They spend many hours of the day, week, and year trying to find and kill the Cane Toads. They have spent like 100,000 hours of their time trying to find them. People fence in areas where there are Cane Toads kill them and find their eggs and destroy them. It is a good thing and a bad thing. When they fence them in it keeps animals out to, so they can’t get water or anything. They also pour chemicals on them, hit them with golf clubs, and freeze them.
Cane Toads are a bad, bad thing. An invasive species is a species that invades a habitat causing harm to whoever or something that is in it. I would say that Cane Toads have that covered; killing pets, predators, and its own prey. We have caused this huge crisis and we need to stop it too.