Bufo marinus (Bufonidae)

The so-called cane toad (Bufo marinus) is a large brown to grayish-brown toad with warty skin, usually 6-9" in length at maturity, and weighing up to four pounds. Bufo marinus takes approximately one year to reach maturity, and may live from 10-40 years.  The skin of the toad has glands that produce an irritant which can be toxic--even lethal--to other small animals, and cause irritation of eyes and mucus membranes in humans. Cane toads have a wide diet and will eat almost any animal they can fit into their mouths, although their normal prey is insects. 

Species description or overview

The cane toad (Bufo marinus) in Australia/New Zealand
Information about the cane toad (Bufo marinus) in Australia/New Zealand is provided by authorities and Canberra University in Australia.

Cane toad species profile (USDA)
Cane toad (Rhinella marina, formerly Bufo marinus) information, including video, sound sample, citations, and overviews, is provided by the National Invasive Species Information Center.

Bufo marinus description and ecology from GISD (ISSG)
A species description and information about the ecology of Bufo marinus as an invasive species is provided from the Global Invasive Species Database (GISD). GISD was created and is maintained by IUCN's Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG).

Giant toad (Bufo marinus) overview
Giant toad (Bufo marinus) information, images, and call are from the University of Florida, Florida Wildlife Extension.

Taxonomy & nomenclature

Impacts

Toads poisoning "medical" snakes (video)
Australia's king brown snakes, milked for antivenom production, are eating poisonous cane toads and dying from the toads' toxin (National Geographic news, 6/27/2008).

Invasive predators: A synthesis of the past, present, and future 
Effects of various invasive predators on prey populations are described in a synthesis from USDA APHIS.

Bufo marinus impact information from GISD (ISSG)
Impact information regarding Bufo marinus as an invasive species is provided from the Global Invasive Species Database (GISD). GISD was created and is maintained by IUCN's Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG).

Dispersal and pathways

Control methods

Images

Giant toad (Bufo marinus) overview
Giant toad (Bufo marinus) information, images, and call are from the University of Florida, Florida Wildlife Extension.

Distribution

Bufo marinus worldwide distribution from GISD (ISSG)
Worldwide distribution information about Bufo marinus is provided from the Global Invasive Species Database (GISD). GISD was created and is maintained by IUCN's Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG).

Books

In the news

Invasive species: Toad-ally out of control
Bufo marinus, the cane toad, proves how misuse of biological control agents can lead to the catastrophic mismanagement of our natural world. This article recounts how the introduction of 100 toads from Hawaii to Australia to control pests in cane fields has resulted in a national ecological disaster.

Full-text articles

An updated, indexed bibliography of the herpetofauna of Florida
Enge, Kevin M. 2002. An updated, indexed bibliography of the herpetofauna of Florida. Technical report no. 19.

Herpetological inventory in West Hawaii National Parks: Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site
Bazzano, Jason. 2007. Herpetological inventory in West Hawaii National Parks: Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site. Technical Report 141. Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Honolulu. 30 pp. illus.

Experts

Other resources

Some documents posted on the HEAR website are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. If your computer is not already set up to read these files, you can download the FREE Adobe Acrobat reader. You can set up most web browsers to automatically invoke this reader (as a "helper application" or "add-in") upon encountering documents of this type (refer to your browser's documentation for how to do this).

The Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk (HEAR) project was historically funded by the Pacific Basin Information Node (PBIN) of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) through PIERC (USGS) with support from HCSU (UH Hilo). More details are available online.

The content of this page is based on information last generated on 15 October 2017 by PT. The template for this page was created on 15 March 2004 by EMS, and was last updated on 20 February 2006 by PT.