Cane Toads (Bufo marinus) heads south to Sydney

About 30 have been found over the last few weeks including a number of baby toads Taren Point, in the city's south. A pest control firm reports that they caught 24 toads on land belonging to one factory with six only 5cm long.
National Parks and Wildlife officers have been listening during the night for the distinctive nocturnal mating calls of the male toads but they are yet to hear any mating calls.
Professor Rick Shine, a toad expert who heads the University of Sydney's Team Bufo states "In any event they will almost certainly die during winter as Sydney is at the edge of their suitable habitat."
The cane toad, Bufo marinus, was introduced to Australia by the sugar cane industry to control two pests of sugar cane, the grey backed cane beetle and the frenchie beetle.
Cane Toads are large heavily-built amphibians with dry warty skin. They have a bony head and over their eyes are bony ridges that meet above the nose. They sit upright and move in short rapid hops. Their hind feet have leathery webbing between the toes and their front feet are unwebbed. Adult Cane Toads have large swellings - the parotoid glands - on each shoulder behind the eardrum
Cane Toads may be grey, yellowish, olive-brown or reddish-brown, and their bellies are pale with dark mottling. Average-sized adults are 10-15 cm long. The largest female measured in Queensland was 24 cm long and weighed 1.3 kg. Male Cane Toads are smaller and wartier than females. During the breeding season males develop dark lumps (nuptial pads) on their first two fingers; these help them cling to a female while mating. Their mating call is a long loud purring trill.
Young Cane Toads have a smooth dark skin with darker blotches and bars, and lack conspicuous parotoid glands. They can be distinguished from some native Australian frogs because they sit upright and are active in the daytime in dense clusters.
Cane Toad tadpoles are shiny black on top and have a plain dark belly and a short thin tail. They are smaller (less than 3.5 cm long) than most native tadpoles and often gather in huge numbers in shallow water. Cane Toad spawn is unique in Australia. It is laid in long strings of transparent jelly enclosing double rows of black eggs. The spawn tangles in dense dark masses around water plants, and hangs in ropy strands if picked up.

Should you see any cane toad please report it to WetlandCare Australia: 02 66826169 or Department of Environment & Conservation (NPWS): 02 66411500