Lizards Learn Not to Eat Toxic Toads
Scientists teach Australian Lizards encountering invasive and poisonous toads to avoid them
But a new study by Georgia Ward-Fear, an ecologist and PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, has found a new way of helping the lizards deal with cane toads. In a recent experiment, young cane toads, who do not yet carry a lethal amount of the toxin, were introduced to areas ahead of the main invasion by adult cane toads.
The lizards who consumed the juvenile toads became ill, but were not killed, and most did not make the same mistake again. When the deadly adults arrived, the lizards avoided them. Of all the lizards trained in this way, more than half survived the 18 months of the study. It is hoped this practice can be introduced on a larger scale.
Related Links
- Paper in The Royal Society Biology Letters
- University of Sydney release
- BBC story
- Phys.org story
- Smithsonian Magazine story