Need to move faster? Growing longer legs is the cane toad’s answer. The amphibian pest is accelerating its march across the Australian landscape, leaving a trail of ecological devastation. Bufo marinus was introduced to Hawaii and from there to Australia, but its natural range extends from Patagonia north, throughout much of South and Central America, into central Mexico, extending to Northern Mexico and the Big Bend region of Texas.

Cane toads (Bufo marinus) were first introduced to the country 70 years ago in an attempt to control beetles in sugar cane, but the toads preferred native fauna and slowly began to spread north and south, wreaking havoc on Goanna (native lizards) and marsupial frog predators who are killed when they eat the poisonous toad.

In a report published in this week’s Nature, researchers from the University of Sydney show the toad is evolving longer legs so as to better capture Northern Australia.

Richard Shine and his colleagues looked at museum specimens and found that the toads have become 25% leggier and fivefold faster over a 60-year period.

“The sprinters can move up to 1.8 kilometres a night and generally opt to travel along roads.” says Shine, the research team head. “The toads are making it on their own - they aren’t hitchhiking on the back of trucks as had been suspected.”

Accelerating cane toads are bad news “The toads will make it to Western Australia earlier than thought. We need to do something pretty quick,” says Shine. Despite attempts to curtail the monster toads, it looks as if they are still outpacing control efforts.

The toad was the subject of an amusing movie in the eighties, which is highly recommended.

Tags: cane toad, bufo marinus, richard shine, invasive species, goanna, ecological devastation