Invasion of the Toxic Toads: Nature's Most Successful Failure

They prefer suburban living, they’ll eat anything in sight (including each other), and…they’re taking over the world?
This Earth Month, say hello to the Cane Toad: the epitome of failing upward. Wishfully introduced as a solution to a problem, cane toads have become the problem themselves. They’ve established themselves as an extremely successful invasive species… by doing nothing? Join the Fascinating Fails team as we look into how Cane Toads keep taking over ecosystems and what an ‘invasive species’ means in the era of climate change. Plus, find out ways YOU can help fight the climate crisis-it’s as simple as taking a picture!
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[@toadbustersflorida]

Terrific episode about invasive species and cane toads. Thank you for visiting us in Florida, and including Toad Busters & our founder Jeannine Tilford. We appreciate you and the good work you do on Fascinating Fails!

[@pbsterra]

Thank you for having us!

[@patrickfitzgerald2861]

And the truth is they are failing completely. What is your state government doing about this?

[@FusionDeveloper]

If only I could have all the cane toads to myself... I love how they are the "tank" of all toad species.

[@onyxianna]

I would love to work for you. If I could afford it, I'd even travel the 15 hours back and forth between home and you to do so. I love protecting native species, and this seems like one of the first good ideas regarding cane toads I have seen in a while. It seems actually feasible.

[@Cudddlefish]

“Nature’s Most Successful Failure” will be the title of my memoir.

[@eljanrimsa5843]

How many species on how many continents have you driven to extinction so far?

[@danielnaberhaus5337]

Ducks would actually eat the bugs and leave the sugar cane alone. Ducks can combat locust swarms. The world needs more ducks.

[@DBT1007]

local ducks to be exact. and some duck species can only eat plants and small insects. some ducks, can eat snails and stuff.

[@ricardoxavier827]

Honey badger eats poison snakes...

[@ricardoxavier827]

Australia needs a new invader...

[@posticusmaximus1739]

​@@ricardoxavier827I was thinking the same thing, Australia should import the honey badger. They love poisonous animals.

[@kyt-nh1ef]

If there's something strange, in the poisoned woods, who ya gonna call? TOAD BUSTERS!

[@ninehundreddollarluxuryyac5958]

My girlfriend's dog was killed by a cane toad. She knew what it was and grabbed the dog and drove to the vet just a mile away. The dog was dead before she got halfway there.

[@IanPendleton-gh6ox]

So sorry to hear about that. I've lost my own pet recently, so my heart goes out to you.

[@overtonhallford54]

Word is that some white ibis have been seen eating them. The ibis picks one up and smack them around until the toads glands are empty, then they rinse off the toad in water.

[@raclark2730]

Huh found a dead toad in the water the other day just so happens Ibis frequent the spot.

[@Devo491]

In Australia, the crows have learned to flip them over and eat the underside.

[@dozermc5220]

Here in Queensland Australia it's standard to make high school students bring their own cane toads into biology class for dissection.

[@benmcreynolds8581]

It's eerie how those toxic toads have been able to destroy Australia's ecosystem. Even their eggs were killing fish & everything else even crocs. Only rats that can flip them over to eat their abdomin can kill these sucker's. It's such a out of control situation.

[@PhilthySteel]

Theres a bird thats figured out which bit to eat too mate, its just nature is too slow to react to an invasion like cane toads.

[@sten4982]

Our meat ants take care of them as well. Very bitey ants those things.

[@posticusmaximus1739]

Let us be clear, cane toads did not destroy anything. White Australians did. The imperialists brought the toads.

[@A3Kr0n]

Invasion of the Clever Humans: Nature's Most Successful Failure. I felt that would make a good follow up video.

[@franceshorton918]

I had the same thought! WE are the extra carbon the world needs to get rid of. A sad reality. And 9 billion of us by 2050. It's unsustainable.

[@Trask899]

Its funny, my only frame of reference for the toad problem and even learning what an invasive specks was is from an episode of the Simpsons when Bart brings over the frog which spreads quickly. Another excellent episode which was not only informative, but fun and funny to watch with all the creative blurbs and fascinating discussions.

[@andersonic]

Back in the days of VHS the 1988 documentary "Cane Toads: An Unnatural History" was a cult classic. Shame it's more relevant than ever but this is a delightful update.

[@IanGrams]

Another excellent episode. I knew about the cane toad problem in Australia but hadn't realized they were such a widespread problem in Florida too. I had never heard about iNaturalist before either so I'm glad Dr. Pettorelli mentioned it. Love me some citizen science.

[@marybenson9418]

Best episode yet! I love this series, it's fresh and really scientifically sound.

[@Achill101]

I'm missing ideas in the video about how to keep cane toads in check.

[@patrickfitzgerald2861]

There are none.

[@raclark2730]

A golf club and a chainsaw visor for the splatter. There are also some signs of natural predation mostly from birds. There is also a species of water snake that has been observed eating toadpoles. There seems to be less toads and toad spawning in my area and also quite a few sickly and slugish specimens. Could be so form of disease maybe. That's just from my observation, so waiting to see if anyone else can confirm that.

[@eljanrimsa5843]

Not bring them to new ecosystems

[@raclark2730]

@@eljanrimsa5843 It was done when people had a poor understanding of these things. Nobody uses them anymore.

[@franceshorton918]

They're not in New Zealand, thank God. Thank our vigilant Customs and Biological controls at airports and wharves. Thank our cold weather and already polluted, unattractive rivers. The cane toads wouldn't want to be here 😂

[@rayrocher6887]

Thanks Robert, thanks fighting environment dystopian

[@tarjei99]

Create super mating sounds that collect toads in a wide area. Let them come instead of going out looking for them.

[@inappropriatejohnson]

As we humans build space habitats and colonize the solar system and beyond over the next few thousand years, some advice: be very careful which organisms we bring, and keep Florida people and Rat Fanciers OUT of the decision making process.

[@huldu]

There will never be anything we do that will be "right", it only takes one single person to create a disaster. I'm not just talking about animals and potential colonies, we'll bring pest with us there is no question about it, only a matter of time. You can't blame other animals for being like us ie survivors to the extreme. We're the #1 invasive species no matter where we go.

[@billdrummer7707]

I didn't start out today being interested in invasive toads, but you made them fascinating! Good job!

[@kassiemeiler3637]

Such an informative video! Thank you for shedding light on this.

[@darwinwins]

"cheesy creamy" squirting poison was not what i was expecting to see today. awesome.

[@louisalowry6229]

And now we are facing the invasion of the shot hole borer here in Perth, trees both native and nonnative being destroyed 😢

[@elijahnewell8064]

I love how this lady is describing this frog like a serial killer, providing a full record of the ecological disaster it has caused, and the frog is just sitting there like 👁👄👁

[@NGC-catseye]

The only good thing about cane toads in Australia, is that they allowed Aussies to become great cricketers 🏏 and golfers 🏌️‍♀️

[@dozermc5220]

Yes, I'd already taken out thousands of toads with a golf club by the time I took my first swing at a golf ball.

[@jeanineireland]

Cane toads are so sweet. We grew up playing with them in SW Florida. I've captured hundreds of these little guys and never got sick or poisoned by them. Our dogs would sniff them and walk away. As kids we would kiss cane toads on the top of their heads before letting them go. We ate candy after handling cane toads. No one got sick or died. I love them.

[@DominikJaniec]

great episode! thank you :)

[@Pottery4Life]

Thank you.

[@rayrocher6887]

Thanks Dr pettorelli, good work in Oxford

[@jessicacrain9]

WHERE CAN I GET THAT MUG!!!!! it looks so cool! i just found this by chance. very love the information that is given

[@joanfregapane8683]

Very interesting!

[@StarLightNow]

I keep saying it but I really love this series. Everything about it is fantastic.

[@claireseaton3659]

This is NUTS! So thankful for the work Toad Busters does in Florida, holy cow! I bet y'all have saved countless pets 🙏

[@goncharov000]

Love the colorful glasses!

[@ariw9405]

I have such an irrational fear of frogs & toads.

[@DiowE]

One thing which is not cleared in the video is the disposal method. What you do to these captured toads. Thank you for giving me an answer. P.S. - Please, don't think that if your answer is 'we terminate them', then i would go on giving you lecture on mercy or some other dumb virtue signalling. I just want an answer to my curiosity. [DiowE]

[@FusionDeveloper]

They can compost them as fertilizer. There are videos on it.

[@FusionDeveloper]

But they should just give them all to me because I love toads.

[@AlexaSimeone-mh3qy]

Great insights! Learning of our FL over stayed guests 🐸

[@ug7014]

A small part of me was hoping you would say it was a toadal failure at some point

[@yellowflowerorangeflower5706]

Cool

[@screwyu1329]

The natural enemy of the cane toad is the 9 iron. We have found here in Queensland that if you kill one, turn it on it's back and leave them outside. The crows have learnt to flip them and eat their guts without getting poisoned.

[@posticusmaximus1739]

You know what they say about people who like to hurt animals? Serial killers in the making, fitting for a former penal colony.

[@ZetaR0yszawa]

Asian common toads: *Great, we have our long time rival*

[@user-gw6ib8xw4d]

Crows here in Australia have learnt to flip the cane toad over onto its back and eats its stomach..

[@crazyquilt]

1:10 Smells Like Toad Spirit

[@soad3838]

Maren's the best!!!

[@Liz-sc3np]

Palms just chilling

[@wcdeich4]

Thanks for acknowledging 3 categories. 2 is oversimplified.

[@brianmulholland2467]

It's a weird transition between speakers at 4 min. It's like suddenly - "Hi! I'm talking now!"

[@mollyannejacobs]

Do they die from the poison if they eat each other?

[@Vlad_the_Impaler]

I liked the way Robert sneak himself in to the video. It looked like rap video in reverse.

[@kr33mpi]

bruhhhhhhthat squeeze........

[@apemancommeth8087]

There should be a special month that everyone gets out and helps catch them! If humans caused this, we all should chip in and help fix it!

[@cerarobert1989]

Girl, how did you even hold a frog? I'd be poisoned if I ever did that. That frog too was scared. 😂 So, glad to have you on the PBS channel. ❤😊.

[@S3lkie-Gutz]

it’s only poisonous if you try to ingest it, not venomous. you’re implying that you’d try to put it in your mouth or something(not saying you are that’s just what it sounds like)

[@rockys7726]

As usual the one thing that is common about invasives spreading is due to human intervention. Even scientists are short sighted and do things without completely understanding the full impact of their actions.

[@katebentley2526]

She talked about uploading pictures and info in the "right app" to get the data to her and other scientists. Could you give us list of those "right apps"? Is iNaturalist one of them?

[@franceshorton918]

I wonder if the cane toads can be controlled by genetic engineering? It might seem an impossible task to attempt to eliminate millions of toads, but we humand DO have brains and opposable thumbs! I hope scientists in Australia are working on a 'sterility gene' right now. Surely, with a concerted effort from whole communities, we can try?

[@Joe-Przybranowski]

Poisonous? Or toxic?

[@hugog8551]

At 5:02, so according to this definition the worst invasive mammal seems to be the human species.

[@huldu]

To be fair we humans top that invasive species list by a large margin. I doubt anything really comes close to us and how destructive we are to everything around us including ourselves.

[@Cudddlefish]

Yeah, but we had to invent agriculture and stuff to do that. It takes a lot of smarts and hard work to screw things up as badly as us.

[@ryanreedgibson]

And to be fair, Florida is nothing like Australia or even the rest of the US. More S.O. than anywhere else in the world. The second worse is AR.

[@paurushbhatnagar8100]

You have said the truth. We are biggest invasive species. But about cane toads they are not Nature failure but rather we have made them available to places they never belong. Like we spread rats on the islands they never belong.

[@raclark2730]

Only in the past few centuries, and we have been here for 300 000 years. Less moaning and more change.

[@raclark2730]

@@Cudddlefish Yes well we need to fix that. I don't mind going back to hunter gatherer personally , but its not practical for everyone. So we need to modify agriculture as we know it.

[@coreysimmons4519]

Accurate shot fired: comparing Australia to Florida

[@jaythewolf]

Didn't Australia also make the same mistake with rabbits? 🤔 So they built a long fence only halfway through... As if the Mongols....errr, I mean, rabbits can't just go around 😂

[@mamanimepranknewbie]

One animal that isnt native from the land can have a potential to change or destroy

[@forest2797]

Please put a flashing lights warning on your videos if you are going to edit it in 😖

[@hackedbyBLAGH]

How are they dispatching those thousands of toads they catch

[@hunterhq295]

What is the natural predator of cane toads in their home habitat?

[@Chihirolee3]

My neighbor just cut down all his front yard trees due to Emerald Ash Borer. :/ My trees are maple and walnuts.

[@lemonblossom0]

2:41 yo where's the flash warning 😵‍💫

[@bobyoung1698]

Questions: Looking at those man-made ponds ... would it be possible to surround the smaller ones with temporary fences in order to trap the young toads after they leave the pond. It would take at least a decade, but could Burmese Pythons in the Florida Everglades be bred to "select" cane toads as prey? Maybe we could eliminate two problems at once.

[@bennettfender9927]

Cane Toads are far too small to be prey for a Burmese Python.

[@bobyoung1698]

@@bennettfender9927 Not the young ones.

[@bennettfender9927]

@@bobyoung1698 Gotcha.

[@mikepresto1]

Apparently my strong suit is watching fly fishing videos, then spending my weekend working on the house and cars.

[@Enemys0ng]

dangit martha

[@bufonivoracea]

@PBS Terra That is not a female cane toad. The shown toad “Martha” (0:39) has dark nuptial pads and is 100% a male.

[@bugloverspiderlover8490]

They are already in south Texas. Haven’t seen any up north yet,just the common American species.

[@sten4982]

But Florida has Meth Gators, we only have Salty crocs and fresh water ones. Meth Gators sound cooler

[@TealCheetah]

The flashing at 2:41 is awful

[@benzell4]

Calling all Citizen Naturalists to remote sense!

[@jstvglass1]

Yay for iNaturalist!

[@melaneykk5986]

Oh please don't do flasing lights with out waning.

[@ricardoxavier827]

The honey badger eats poison snakes... Australia needs a new invader...

[@BlindSquirrel666]

Can you smoke them? I mean more than once.

[@rainy_cloud9115]

These toads LOVE cat food!

[@Dqtube]

So who will win in Florida - the toads or the pythons? Or is there another contestant who's not as famous ?

[@huldu]

They should take some notes from England in how to make wildlife go extinct. They used to have a lot of beavers in England, they made them go extinct(there are some projects around to bring them back). Also note that England has *no* large predators because they made them go extinct as well so if anything they know how to solve "problems" by removing them completely.

[@victoriaeads6126]

England is a much smaller territory, the animals you refer to were larger and bred less frequently, and , well, they aren't usually animals humans are inclined to hunt. Intentional strategies are necessary for creatures like cane toads, which can explosively breed, have few natural predators, if any, are nocturnal and sneaky, and hold little interest to humans beyond those who know about them and want to get rid of them.

[@raclark2730]

Bring back snake skin boots.

[@lenabreijer1311]

Climate change, it will end up under water.

[@MsAnubisia]

Don't forget lion fish and tilapia in the Florida waterways!

[@LivingWithGout]

So cute. We are the ultimate invasive specie.

[@troymansfield4987]

They killing the toads?

[@MZ99698]

Yes

[@ordinary_motorist]

I know they're an accomplished scientist helping the world but I just can't trust someone with so many shortcuts and files on their desktop

[@mildsoup8978]

Why can't delicious animals act like this...

[@agodawg]

There are a lot of tasty invasive species. I know many weeds that make great salad, lots of different berries and all of our livestock is usually non-native (and sometimes invasive too)

[@raclark2730]

Tilapia, Lion fish, goats , pigs. Dig in 🍽😎

[@stevenherrold5955]

successful failure i didn't know those 2 words could go in the same sentence sounds like i go forward by going backward i'm getting fat so that i can lose weight

[@Izzy-qf1do]

Smoke bufo

[@FusionDeveloper]

Best toad species on earth. Let toads take over the world. Hooray for toads!! (yeah I love Cane Toads, but they aren't in my area. No other toad species can compare to every single attribute they have at every stage of their life).

[@ryanreedgibson]

When you lick a toad, you lick every toad that toad has been with. - Family Guy

[@GGoAwayy]

Wait... so WHAT does Toad Busters do with all those hundreds of toads they capture every night? Kill them all?

[@MZ99698]

Yes

[@Accentor100]

Video about Cane Toads. Frog recording used was that of Pacific Chorus Frogs.

[@briandoczahm]

At least it wasn’t a red-tailed Hawk call they use when they show ANY bird or prey, in ANY situation or location! Thanks for the data! I’d expect more from PBS.

[@Accentor100]

@@briandoczahm yes! That's another one that grinds my gear and I agree, I expect better from PBS.

[@Testuser582]

Brit striking again....

[@KrytoRift]

Extremely toxic as she proceeds to handle it with bare hands

[@S3lkie-Gutz]

poisonous not venomous, don’t put it in your mouth and wash your hands after handling them

[@KrytoRift]

@@S3lkie-Gutz the poison is on the skin. A small cut or wound would allow the toxins to enter the bloodstream We have all had small wounds on our hands that we were aware of

[@theobserver9131]

Are these the guys that have DMT in their gland juice?

[@srwapo]

People brought toads because of farms people made and are living better because of ponds people made and love "the human environment", toads are obviously the problem

[@victoriaeads6126]

Robert's a great host!

[@CAMacKenzie]

GROSS!!! What about radiotagging a 'toxic toad friendly' bait protien for dosing identified breeding poinds? Greed will assure readings above bacground level so that population movement can be mapped. A dose from a CO2 tank could quick-freeze the tadpoles or egg mass for removal or chemical neutering ( and it might also work for Burmese pythons ).

[@EmilyTienne]

Leave it to the humans. The planet would do just fine without us.

[@sadi2125]

Todal failure

[@letsomethingshine]

Name the specific people who are labeled “scientists” instead of “sugar plantation owners and goons”. Name them if there is evidence.

[@rayrocher6887]

Dr tilford thanks, sorry Florida busted

[@skaldlouiscyphre2453]

Toads are great at controlling invasive dogs.

[@GGoAwayy]

Invasive dogs like your mom?

[@soledadariasaller754]

Martha is a male!