The Cane Toad is an amphibian that is from the southern United States and Northern South America. It is a large toad.
How Big is a Cane Toad?
The Cane Toad can grow up to 6 inches long and can be up to almost 3 pounds.
What Does a Cane Toad Look Like?
The Cane Toad can be brown or grey and is a large toad. It has bumps on its skin that are sometimes called warts but are not warts. These bumps are thought to help the toad to not look outlined when it is trying to find a place to hide form the predators.
The Cane Toad looks pretty much similar to other toads. It does have big lumps that are found behind its ears and these are used to put poison out if they are attacked by other animals.
Does the Cane Toad go Through Metamorphosis?
Metamorphosis is a process where an animal’s body will change to help it adapt to the surroundings. The Cane Toad does go through metamorphosis. Even though it spends most of its life on land, the Cane Toad will start its life in water as an egg and will then turn into a tadpole which is like a fish and has gills and a tail.
Later, the tadpole will begin to grow legs and a tail. When it becomes a bigger toad, it will get lungs and will lose its tail and spend the rest of its life on land.
How Long Does the Cane Toad Live?
The Cane Toad can live up to 15 years in the wild and can live even longer if it is a pet.
Where Does the Cane Toad Live?
The Cane Toad lives close to water areas and close to areas with tall grasses to protect themselves.
What Does the Cane Toad Eat?
The Cane Toad is considered a carnivore which means that it eats other animals. The Cane Toad is known to eat insects, reptiles and even rodents. It will also eat plants if it needs to.
Cane Toad Eggs
The Cane Toad will spend most of its life on land and only goes to the water when it is ready to have eggs. The Female Cane Toad can lay up to 25,000 eggs at one time. She will do this in the water and then she will leave.
After the eggs hatch, which is usually around 4 days, it takes about a month before the tadpole will turn into a frog.
How Does the Cane Toad Protect Itself?
The Cane Toad has poison in its glands in its skin and when a predator eats or gets this poison in its mouth, it will cause the animal to have trouble with its heart and die.
Even the egg of the Cane Toad is poisonous and so are the tadpoles. This makes this type of amphibian dangerous to most other animals.
The Cane Toad poison does not usually kill a human being, but it can cause their eyes and skin to be very irritated if they touch the Cane Toad.
Many animals where the Cane Toad live have become immune to the poison of the Cane Toad. If someone brings a Cane Toad to a different animal, it can kill other wildlife that is not adapted to the poison and can cause problems in the ecosystem.
Australia
Cane Toads have been found in Australia and they are very fast. They do not have very many predators and so this means that there are many of them that survive. There are over 200 million Cane Toads in the country and now people are trying to figure out how to control the population of them.
Facts About Cane Toads:
- Cane Toads hunt with their eyes and also, they can use their sense of smell to find food.
- Since the Cane Toad is so poisonous, it has caused a lot of damage to other wildlife.
- The Cane Toad is native to Central and South America.
- A Cane Toad has a defense to make itself look bigger if it is threatened.
- Some people take Cane Toads to other regions because they are good at protecting the crops from being eaten by insects.
What Did You Learn?
- What is the Cane Toad? The Cane Toad is a large toad that is found in South America and North America.
- What do Cane Toads eat? Cane Toads eat insects and reptiles. They are carnivores which means they eat other animals.
- Where do Cane Toads live? Cane Toads live close to places that have water and in tall areas where there is grass.
- Why is water important? Even though Cane Toads only go to the water to lay eggs, they need the water in order to make sure that their species survives.
- Why is it important to mention that they live in Australia? It is important to mention that Cane Toads live in Australia because there are so many of them that the population of Cane Toads is out of control.