Australia has what is called a Cane Toad. This toad (well lots of these toads) spread into new territory by jumping. No real surprise there I guess, but what is a surprise is that these toads suffer from arthritis! The fastest toads are those with the longest legs unfortunately, those with the longest legs suffer the most from joint pain.

The toads are native to South and Central America, so how did these toads get to Australia? They were brought there to eat cane beetles in an attempt to save the sugar cane crop, this occurred in 1935. There are now nearly 200,000,000 (200 million) of these large toads and they are becoming an ecological issue.

These toads are quite poisonous and predators that eat them often die quickly from the act. Being toads, they compete for resources with other frogs and toads. It is said that one of these guys can cover a half kilometer during a night, pretty good for a toad!

Toads are not meant to travel so much, this is what is supposedly causing the arthritis. The question I have is, how did they originally discover this?

Tags: environment, nature, toad, frog, medical, arthritis