1. Cane Toads
By Chantelle Eikelboom and
Mitchell Barber

2. What are the effects of cane toads in
Australia?

3. Research Questions
1. How fast are the cane toads spreading and which
parts of Australia have been affected the most?
2. Why did no one consider the fact that the cane toads
might have a negative impact on the environment
when they were introduced into Queensland? Did the
cane toads have negative impacts in the areas where
they came from?
3. What impact are cane toads having on animal
populations?
4. If any, what positive impacts did the cane toads have?

4. History and Movement
• Introduced by Reginald Mongomery in 1935
from Hawaii
• Cane toads didn’t help cane growers with
their beetle problem
• Toads are now moving at 40-60km per year
due to evolution of longer legs

5. Effect on animal species
• Large animals such as snakes, crocodiles and
some mammals are most at risk
• They are a contributing factor to population
decline in some species

6. Red Belly Snake
Cane Toad

7. Northern Quoll

8. Conclusions
• Cane toads didn’t help farmers and are now a
widespread pest across much of Australia
• They are currently moving at 40-60km per
year
• They are affecting many animal
populations, mostly large animals

9. How to control the cane toads in
Australia?
What is the problem really?...

10. …Their Reproduction Rate

11. Research Questions
1. What is the effectiveness of toad busting, toad
traps, and fencing to control the magnitude and
spread of cane toad populations?
2. Do cane toads have any natural predators in
Australia, and can we utilise any of these to
combat the cane toads?
3. Are there any other ways to battle the cane toad
advancements and population growth on a
more scientific level, e.g. biological warfare?

12. Physical Solutions
Toad Busting:
• Is a method that is very effective at moving large numbers of cane toads
quickly from an area (4,500 cane toads in 3 hours in one spot) (Toad
Busting hand or Collection, 2011)
• However, due to their rapid reproduction rate, even if 99% were
removed, their numbers would return to pre-harvest level very quickly
(“Cane Toad tadpole control”, 2011-2012, para.1)
Fencing:
• Is a very effective mechanism for keeping cane toads out of water bodies
and thus depleting their reproduction rates
• However, this is not effective in all parts of Australia such that this will
provide a negative impact on other wildlife species
Toad traps:
• Due to cane toads characteristics such as feeding on insects, traps prove
to also be effective at depleting cane toad numbers in an area

13. Biological Solutions
Meat ants:
• Love to eat cane toads
• An interesting fact about meat ants and cane
toads is that they both “spend their time active
by day in exactly the same places” (“MEAT ANTS:
an Aussie predator”, 2011-2012, para. 2)
• Researchers found that the was no increased
impact on native species when the number of
meat ants increased in the area

14. Biological Solutions
Toads are attracted to their own
poison
Scientists have been testing its
effectiveness in traps. In one test,
results had shown that over
40,000 cane toad tadpoles were
captured in less than a week
Scientists have found that the exposure to cane toad tadpole
pheromones results in physical defects, e.g., lower body mass.
Additionally, tadpoles exposed to this chemical suffer and
decrease in survival rate by 40% (“Ecology: Chemical warfare
among cane toads”, 2011, para.2)

15. Conclusions
• These various physical solutions to control the
cane toad populations are effective, however,
something else is needed
• Research shows that the problem actually lies
with the rapid reproduction of cane toads
• Once a solution can be found for this, a
combination of the solutions would prove to
be very effective in the war against cane toads

16. Curriculum
SU
• Biological sciences
SI
• Developed research questions
• Evaluate and analyse data for validity
SHE
• Decisions influenced by society

17. Sustainability
Sustainability is meeting the current social,
environmental, economic and political needs of
current generations without compromising the
ability for future generations to meet these
needs

18. Reflections
My two
‘s include:
• There were many articles written about my topic
which were very useful
• I know so much about cane toads now
My one wish would be to be able to get more stats and
current information.

19. Reflections
My two
‘s include:
• I found this topic really intriguing such that I began
emailing researchers over in the Eastern States who
were investigating the control of cane toads
• The increase in knowledge of this topic
My one wish was that there was a larger variety of
resources and studies