Turning Tadpole Against Tadpole to Fight Toxic Toad

Livescience.com (Utah, USA) August 30th, 2011 06:04 PM: Turning Tadpole Against Tadpole to Fight Toxic Toad

Invasive cane toads could be their own undoing.

It's a tadpole-eat-tadpole world out there — and that's exactly what Australian scientists are hoping will control the spread of a giant invasive toad with toxic flesh.

The cane toad (Bufo marinus), which can weigh up to 3 pounds (1.4 kg), is a scourge in Australia. Introduced in the 1930s to control beetles that fed on sugar cane, the toads soon became their own ecological nightmare, competing with local wildlife for food. The toads' skin is highly toxic, threatening house pets and native predators such as the Northern quoll, an endangered marsupial.

The toads are also locked into a life-or-death conflict for food and space with each other, especially as tadpoles. A new study suggests that ecologists could turn the toads' own survival strategies against them, using pheromones released by older tadpoles to weaken younger ones.




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