Biological disaster can result when humans intentionally (or not) introduce organisms to areas in which they are not native. One of the worst and most studied examples is the cane toad (Bufo marinus).
This toad is native to Central and South America and was introduced to eat beetle pests in sugarcane fields. It was first introduced to Puerto Rico and then to Hawaii, Australia, and other parts of the Pacific where sugarcane is grown. The adult toad shown here was photographed in National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kauai, Hawaii.
The cane toad has poison glands behind its eyes that can kill animals that try to eat it (including many native species that are now endangered as a direct result of cane toad introduction). To make matters worse, cane toads also have a voracious appetite and eat almost anything smaller than them. The video of tadpoles is from the National Capital Botanical Gardens in Port Moresby, PNG. (Just so you know, I think these are cane toad tadpoles, but I’m not really 100% sure.)
Hi Susan — I read an article noting that this species was also introduced to control cane pests in Australia–the gray-backed cane beetle, Dermolepida albohirtum, and the Frenchi beetle, Lepidiota frenchi. But even though beetles were a part of the toad’s diet in its native habitat, it failed to control the beetles in the cane fields. I wonder what makes one beetle more tasty than another or what other prey was more yummy!
I love following your travels.
Kathy
Hey Susan!,
First off, I am really enjoying following your trip, great pictures and commentary. Also wanted to add, people in Australia actually swerve TO run over the cane toad. Those little buggers even eat mice!!! Hope your knee feels better…
-Uli
Do you know the Simpsons episode about Bart being responsible for all this invasive mess? very funny!
thanks for sharing your adventures with us.
Dodo
This is a common problem with biological control – there is really no way to know how an organism is going to react in a new environment and it’s next to impossible to do a controlled small-scale release to find out before disaster hits. You’d think we would learn from past mistakes, but things like the cane toad disaster keep happening.