Releasing Baby Cane Toads Teaches Predators to Avoid Toxic Adults

image via New Scientist

June 17, 2024, 12:00 PM

• •Cane toads were introduced to Australia in the 1930s to control beetles, but they have since become invasive and have devastated the country's ecosystems.
• •The yellow-spotted monitor, a large lizard found mainly in Australia, has been especially hard-hit by the cane toads.
• •Scientists are experimenting with a surprising way to dissuade the lizards from feasting on the toads: releasing cane toad eggs, tadpoles and youngsters in areas where monitors are present and adult toads are about to invade.

Australian conservationists are releasing baby cane toads in areas where adult toads are about to invade. This is to teach native monitor lizards to avoid the toxic adults. The study found that monitor populations exposed to the young “teacher toads” often survived the adults’ influx. In completely unexposed areas, however, the lizards virtually disappeared after the big toads showed up.

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