Identifying cane toads
Make sure it's and cane toad and not a native frog!
Click the cane toad below to hear its call
Description
Latin name
|
Cane toad (Rhinella marina) formerly Bufo marinus |
Appearance
|
Heavy-built amphibian with warty dry skin. Range in colour from yellow to grey. Large paratoid glands on each shoulder behind the eardrum. Sit upright and move in short rapid hops. Front feet unwebbed and hind feet have leathery webbing between the toes. Smaller toads can be less easily identified. Often have smooth darker skin and blotches with less conspicuous paratoid glands.
|
Size
|
Adult toads are usually very large (9-15cm long). Largest female recorded at 24cm long and 1.3 kg in Queensland.
|
Activity
|
Mainly nocturnal foraging. Often found sheltering under rocks and logs, in depressions and under vegetation during cold or hot weather. |
Breeding
|
Breed September to March in still flowing water often tangling the spawn over rocks or water plants. May breed twice per year. |
Eggs
|
Quite distinctive from native frogs eggs as they are laid in long chains - bead like appearance, encased in tube of jelly, 8,000 to 35,000 eggs in one location. Eggs hatch in 48-72 hours |
Tadpoles
|
Very shiny uniform black colour, tail rounded at tip, body up to 11mm in length and tail 13-16mm long. Tadpoles may form large slow moving groups. |
Call
|
|
Don't confuse Native Frogs as Cane Toads
https://frogs.org.au/frogs/of/New_South_Wales/
Download CANE TOAD identification brochures