Cane toad

Cane toad

The cane toad is a large, terrestrial true toad native to South and mainland Central America. It has been introduced to various islands throughout Oceania and the Caribbean, as well as Northern Australia. Adults average 10–15 cm in length; the largest recorded specimen had a snout-vent length of 24 cm. The species is now considered a pest and an invasive species in many of its introduced regions.

About Cane toad in brief

Summary Cane toadThe cane toad is a large, terrestrial true toad native to South and mainland Central America. It has been introduced to various islands throughout Oceania and the Caribbean, as well as Northern Australia. Adults average 10–15 cm in length; the largest recorded specimen had a snout-vent length of 24 cm. It is a prolific breeder; females lay single-clump spawns with thousands of eggs. Its toxic skin can kill many animals, both wild and domesticated, and cane toads are particularly dangerous to dogs. In Australia, the adults may be confused with large native frogs from the genera Limnodynastes, Cyclorana, and Mixophyes. In the United States, the canead closely resembles many bufonid species, which can be distinguished by the presence of two bulbs of parotoid glands in the front of the head. The genome of this species has been sequenced and academics believe it has sequenced the genome of certain Australian species, including the giant toad and the red-footed boobed toad. The species is now considered a pest and an invasive species in many of its introduced regions. Since 2016, cane toAD populations native to Mesoamerica and northwestern South America are sometimes considered to be a separate species, Rhinella horribilis. The common name of the species is derived from its use against the cane beetle, which damages sugar cane.

It was one of many species described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work Systema Naturae. In Trinidadian English, they are commonly called crapaud, the French word for toad, and are also known as the giant neotropical toad or the giant marine toad in the Caribbean and Dominican Argentine and Bosnia and Herzegovinian speaking countries and the giant neotropical toad in the Philippines and South America and  the giant neotropic toad in South America and in the Middle East and North America. The cane Europeans are known as “Cane Toads” because of their large, warty bodies and large, red-coloured eyes. They are often confused with the giant burrowing frog because both are large and warty in appearance; however, the latter can be readily distinguished from the former by its vertical-grey pupils and its silver-grey irises. In particular, cane toads can be confused with the southern toad, which can be distinguished by the presence of two light bulbs in front of its front bulbs and the lack of bright colours on the groin and thighs on the U.S. mainland. The cane toad has many other common names, including \”giant toad\” and \”marine toad\”, the former refers to its size, and the latter to the binomial name, R. marina.