The cane toad, also known as the giant neotropical toad or marine toad, is a large, terrestrial true toad native to South and mainland Central America, but which has been introduced to various islands throughout Oceania and the Caribbean, as well as Northern Australia. It is a member of the genus Rhinella, which includes many true toad species found throughout Central and South America, but it was formerly assigned to the genus Bufo.
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura. The oldest fossil "proto-frog" Triadobatrachus is known from the Early Triassic of Madagascar, but molecular clock dating suggests their split from other amphibians may extend further back to the Permian, 265 million years ago. Frogs are widely distributed, ranging from the tropics to subarctic regions, but the greatest concentration of species diversity is in tropical rainforest. Frogs account for around 88% of extant amphibian species. They are also one of the five most diverse vertebrate orders. Warty frog species tend to be called toads, but the distinction between frogs and toads is informal, not from taxonomy or evolutionary history.
The opalines are a small group of peculiar heterokonts, currently assigned to the family Opalinidae, in the order Slopalinida. Their name is derived from the opalescent appearance of these microscopic organisms when illuminated with full sunlight. Most opalines live in the large intestine and cloaca of anurans, though they are sometimes found in fish, reptiles, molluscs and insects; whether they are parasitic is not certain. The unusual features of the opalines, first observed by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in 1683, has led to much debate regarding their phylogenetic position among the protists.
Bufagin is a toxic steroid C24H34O5 obtained from toad's milk, the poisonous secretion of a skin gland on the back of the neck of a large toad (Rhinella marina, synonym Bufo marinus, the cane toad). The toad produces this secretion when it is injured, scared or provoked. Bufagin resembles chemical substances from digitalis in physiological activity and chemical structure.
The ghost bat is a species of bat found in northern Australia. The species is the only Australian bat that preys on large vertebrates – birds, reptiles and other mammals – which they detect using acute sight and hearing, combined with echolocation, while waiting in ambush at a perch. The wing membrane and bare skin is pale in colour, their fur is light or dark grey over the back and paler at the front. The species has a prominent and simple nose-leaf, their large ears are elongated and joined at lower half, and the eyes are also large and dark in colour. The first description of the species was published in 1880, its recorded range has significantly contracted since that time.
A true toad is any member of the family Bufonidae, in the order Anura. This is the only family of anurans in which all members are known as toads, although some may be called frogs. The bufonids now comprise more than 35 genera, Bufo being the best known.
Environmental issues in Australia describes a number of environmental issues which affect the environment of Australia. There are a range of such issues, some of the relating to conservation in Australia while others, for example the deteriorating state of Murray-Darling Basin, have a direct and serious effect on human land use and the economy.
Bullfrog is a common English language term to refer to large, aggressive frogs, regardless of species.
Dermolepida albohirtum, the cane beetle, is a native Australian beetle and a pest of sugarcane. Adult beetles eat the leaves of sugarcane, but greater damage is done by their larvae hatching underground and eating the roots, which either kills or stunts the growth of the plant. The beetles can also be found in the Philippines and are known there by the local name salagubang.
Rhinella diptycha, sometimes referred to as Cope's toad, Schneider's toad, cururu toad, or rococo toad, is a toad found in northern Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, eastern Bolivia, and eastern and southern Brazil.
Rhinella fissipes, the Carabaya toad, is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae that is found in Bolivia and Peru. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, rivers, freshwater marshes, and intermittent freshwater marshes.
Peltophryne guentheri, the southern crested toad or Gunther's Caribbean toad, is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae. It is endemic to Hispaniola and found in the lowlands of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Rhinella icterica is a species of toad in the family Bufonidae that is found in northeastern Argentina, southern Brazil, and eastern Paraguay. "Cururu" is its indigenous name and refers to the male advertisement call that is a melodious tremolo. "Cururu toad", without the specifier "yellow", is a common name used for a few other closely related species.
The copper-backed brood frog is a species of frog in the family Myobatrachidae. It is endemic to Australia. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, subtropical or tropical dry forests, rivers, intermittent rivers, freshwater marshes, and intermittent freshwater marshes from Mount Tamborine to Nerang.
The Eungella tinker frog, also known as Eungella tinkerfrog, Liem's frog, or Liem's tinker frog, is a species of frog in the family Myobatrachidae. It is endemic to the Eungella area in Queensland, Australia. It lives in rocky margins of fast-flowing creeks and seepages in montane rainforest at elevations of 180–1,250 m (590–4,100 ft) above sea level, but it is more common above 600 m (2,000 ft). It is commonly heard but rarely seen. In contrast to other amphibians in the area, such as Taudactylus eungellensis, no adverse effects of the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis have been reported on this species. It is currently facing no major threats, although its habitat could be impacted by grazing and trampling of streamside vegetation by livestock. Also invasive cane toads are a potential future threat. Its range is with the Eungella National Park.
Rhinella, commonly known as South American toads, beaked toads or Rio Viejo toads, is a genus of true toads native to Neotropical parts of Mexico, Central and South America. Additionally, the cane toad has been Introduced to Australia, the Caribbean, the Philippines and elsewhere.
The cane toad in Australia is regarded as an exemplary case of an invasive species. Australia's relative isolation prior to European colonisation and the industrial revolution, both of which dramatically increased traffic and import of novel species, allowed development of a complex, interdepending system of ecology, but one which provided no natural predators for many of the species subsequently introduced. The recent, sudden inundation of foreign species has led to severe breakdowns in Australian ecology, after overwhelming proliferation of a number of introduced species, for which the continent has no efficient natural predators or parasites, and which displace native species; in some cases, these species are physically destructive to habitat, as well. Cane toads have been very successful as an invasive species, having become established in more than 15 countries within the past 150 years. In the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, the Australian government listed the impacts of the cane toad as a "key threatening process".
Rhabdias alabialis is a species of parasitic nematode in the family Rhabdiasidae. It was first found in lungs of the cane toad Bufo marinus in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. It can be distinguished from its cogenerates by its head morphology, i.e. its lips or pseudolabia absence, a slitlike oral opening, and its buccal capsule being triangular shaped in the apical view.
Native to both South and Central America, Cane toads were introduced to Australia in the 1930s and have since become an invasive species and a threat to the continent's native predators and scavengers.
