WHY WE NEED IT

The Threat

What are cane toads?

Cane toads are essentially a frog from the South American rainforest - BUT they completely lack the adaptations that characterise frog species from arid areas (e.g. their skin can't prevent water loss and they don't have the ability to burrow). As a consequence, they lose water rapidly in dry conditions and need to rehydrate regularly, or they die. Cane toads are poisonous at all stages of their life cycle – egg, tadpole, adult.

Where can you find them?

Despite their rainforest origins, toads have spread across nearly the entirety of northern Australia. They were introduced in 1935, and are now more than 2,300km from their initial release point in north Queensland. This spread has been achieved purely by individuals moving around and breeding in the summer wet season.

How do they spread?

During the dry season, the toads stop moving and stay near permanent water sources to avoid drying out. Unfortunately, permanent water is everywhere across most of northern Australia - both natural sources and artificial waterpoints. Artificial points are those built by pastoralists, which consist of open-topped reservoirs ("turkey nest" dams) or others which constantly leak water - allowing toads to persist through the dry season. In combination, these natural and artificial waterpoints have enabled the spread of toads across more than 1.7 million square kilometres of the continent. Due to the abundance of water in the Pilbara, colonisation by toads will be irreversible.

The threatened

How do toads impact other species?

Cane toads drastically affect the Australian landscape, causing the decline of keystone, native species and having catastrophic biodiversity and cultural impacts.

These impacts can manifest through direct poisoning of the animals (when they attack and eat the toads, their eggs or their tadpoles), as well as predation by or competition with the toads.

Why does it matter?

If toads invade the Pilbara, the conservation status of a number of endemic and native mammals and reptiles may be changed. 15 species are expected to be impacted on a population level, 10 of which may undergo changes in conservation status to become threatened, endangered or even critically endangered.

This change in conservation status will be driven by a crash in population numbers, as we have seen for many native species after toad invasion. Poisoning by toads adds another significant threat to an array of others already impacting our native animals: wildfire, feral predators, weeds etc. This will exacerbate Australia's biodiversity crisis.

As well as the obvious biodiversity impacts, many of these species are culturally important to Indigenous Australians for stories, songlines, and as bush tucker. We can avoid the consequences of these losses if we stop the toads before they reach the Pilbara.

Which species may be affected?

Mammals

Many small native and endemic carnivores are likely to attack toads and be killed by the toxins they secrete. This includes species like the:

Ghost Bat
Northern Quoll
Little Red Kaluta
Pilbara Planigale
Mt Tom Price Planigale
Wongai Ningaui
Pilbara Ningaui
Brush-tailed Mulgara, Ampurta
Fat-tailed Pseudantechinus
Woolley's Pseudantechinus

Reptiles

Likewise, reptiles are also at risk of population declines due to toad invasions, including species like the:

Central and Western Blue-tongues
Perentie
Western Brown Snake
Mulga Snake
Pilbara Mulga Goanna
Southern and Northern Pilbara Rock Goannas
Pygmy Desert Goanna
Spiny-tailed and Stripe-tailed Goannas
Bungarra or Sand Goanna
Yellow-spotted Monitor
Black-headed Monitor

The Toad containment zone

The Toad containment zone

Why do we need the TCZ?

The threat

The threatened

The threatened

The threatened

The threatened

The threatened

The Threat

The threatened

Which species may be affected?

Mammals

Reptiles

The Toad containment zone

The Toad containment zone

Why do we need the TCZ?

The threat

The threatened

The threatened

The threatened

The threatened

The threatened

The Threat

The threatened

Which species may be affected?

Mammals

Reptiles

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