I have cross posted this in the wildlife forum, but thought I would post here too.
A friend of mine was recently in Puerto Rico, which seems pretty tropical to me, and he took a picture of this toad. Does anybody know what kind it is?
Thanks!
Claire
Bufo marinus, the cane toad. They are native to Central and South America. They were introduce to Puerto Rico, Hawai'i, Australia, and many other places to control insects in sugarcane fields.
Don't kiss cane toads, they are poisoness!
Is that the one that was introduced to Australia and consequently spread like vermin overpowering indigenous species of frogs and other animals?
Yes, the thing is a pest. If one has a water garden here (close to the ground) they will kill any fish in it, as the tadpoles are toxic. They eat anything they can fit in their mouth and nothing eats them.
Oh dear me, I rather liked it. I guess I should change my mind! thanks for the ID!!
As Metrosideros says,Australia too has much the same problem with the cane toad as does Hawaii.
The toads contain high levels of bufotenine which is toxic to most animals. Most critters know to avoid them.
It is common for cats and dogs in Hawai'i to die from playing with the toads. Most of the toxin is located in the "warts" on the toads' back. Some unwise human types have been known to cook the toxin with calcium carbonate to produce a crude form of DMT, which is then injested or smoked for toxic effect. Worse yet have been incidences of people intoxicating themselves by taking the substance directly from the animal; hence the term: "kissing cane toads"!
Beware! It makes you crazy and kills you.
Yes, I watched a special on Discovery Channel. It showed residents rounding up hundreds of thousands of toads and destroying them..not even making a dent in the population. I think there was a patch of Australia left where they hadn't invaded and they were trying to keep them from coming in.
Wow, this toad just gets nastier and nastier, the more I read and learn about it. I sure am glad I don't have it in my pond here in Iowa! I can't believe people intoxicate themselves from sucking toads. That's just dreadful!
Aloha, I thought all my toads in the garden were cane toads as they look just like the picture, but I guess they are not because I have never had any deaths in the ponds despite the thousands of tadpoles I get every year - they must be another type of toad that I have here. Come to think of it, one of the semi feral cats we have was licking the back of one of the toads and lived to tell about it! Is there another toad we have in Hawaii that looks similar?
frogs in Hawaii, these are what i find hth
http://www.hear.org/AlienSPeciesInHawaii/species/frogs/ , http://www.explorebiodiversity.com/Hawaii/BiodiversityForgotten/Wildlife/Reptiles/Frogs.htm , http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/pubs/pa_wscoquitfrogs.html , http://www.hawaiiancoqui.org/ , http://hawaii.gov/hdoa/pi/pq/coqui , http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1366-9516.2005.00178.x?cookieSet=1&journalCode=ddi
Jen, the toads in your yard are Bufo marinus, cane toads. The cat got lucky to not get a dose of the toxin. Fish have to eat the tadpoles, for the tadpoles to kill them.
Thanks Dave, great to have the info! Now, the million dollar question - we know that toads are beneficial to the garden, (although I don't find them at all endearing), but should I be trying to exterminate this particular type of toad as it is so poisonous? I do usually try to pull the long egg streamers out of the pond, but usually only get about half of them because they are so slippery...Although I generally do not like to kill anything (except centipedes), I am thinking that maybe I should - what would you guys do?
I just let the critter be in lowlands, they eat centipedes.
They should be removed from nature preserves. In Kihei, because of the wetlands along the coastline, there will always be lots of cane toads.
Mahalo Dave, I will let them be, but it certainly puts me off the ponds! I wish they did a little better on the slug population, I am going broke buying Sluggo!
I happened into this forum the other day. You are kidding me on the toads. I must have a few hundred of the same here. They have never caused any harm that I know of.
"The toads contain high levels of bufotenine which is toxic to most animals. Most critters know to avoid them.
It is common for cats and dogs in Hawai'i to die from playing with the toads. Most of the toxin is located in the "warts" on the toads' back. Some unwise human types have been known to cook the toxin with calcium carbonate to produce a crude form of DMT, which is then injested or smoked for toxic effect. Worse yet have been incidences of people intoxicating themselves by taking the substance directly from the animal; hence the term: "kissing cane toads"!
Beware! It makes you crazy and kills you."
I thought this was old witches tales. LOL
Jim
LOL...I'll never look at a fairy tale of kissing the frog/toad to get a handsome prince again!
Our toads here look very similar, but don't feature the reddish hue.
Maybe when you kiss the toad, you get so intoxicated that everybody looks handsome...
Careful CM!
Kissing toads is not a good dating strategy!
LOL! I will keep that in mind!
LOL...hahahah...that's too funny...mabe that's how fairy tales started in the first place!
my vet has told me that some dogs get addicted to the toads. they get very sick, but apparently 'enjoy' something about the experience and keep going back. we have lots of these toads in Barbados, most of them in my backyard, if I hear my daughter outside screaming i know its a toad. [we call them 'frogs', but actually the only real frogs we have are tiny whistling frogs].
There is a positive: we used these in school for comparative anatomy
and disection, as the toads are many, and the cost is free. Compare
to the fetal pig or others the Bufo is a bargain.
I say we call him "Fred".
Hey JJon, did you stick the toads in the freezer to prepare them for class?
I remember that the worst thing about using Carolina Biological's preserved specimens was the nose-burn ("mute-nostril-agony") and eye watering from the formaldehyde.
Anything to avoid the standard preserved lab animal is an upgrade. I always felt that these type of anatomy classes could be taught effectively with diagrams, slide shows, and maybe a single demonstration by the instructor.
Cane toads seem to adapt to environmental stresses very well. I wouldn't be too surprised to see a frozen toad thaw-out and then hop away!
