Mutant Toads Invade Australian Cities

“Cane toads are to the fresh water environment, what canaries were to coal mines,” Dr. Scott Wilson. Video credit: Dr. Scott Wilson, Central Queensland University, YouTube, Komedyendunyasi

A media frenzy has occurred in Australia this weekend with a report that up to 20% of cane toads are mutated in a Queensland city and with an accompanying video showing the toads with extra limbs and missing eyes, as also increasingly found in other Australian cities.

“The main abnormalities include missing toes, eyes….and backbones,” said Dr. Scott Wilson of Central Queensland University.

This weekend, Wilson said up to 20 per cent of cane toads in certain areas in Gladstone, Queensland were found with “malformations,” compared with 1 percent of the population in non-urban areas.

“Cane toads are to the fresh water environment, what canaries were to coal mines,” said Wilson.

He indicated the same mutations could begin occurring in native frogs, too, and that would spell an even greater concern.

Although Gladstone, located south of Rockhampton, is home to a coal-fired power station, two aluminum refineries, and a developing liquefied natural gas industry, Wilson said the city’s heavy industry was not necessarily to blame for malformations in the toads, but he is not ruling it out.

Dr. Wilson said although there was no evidence to suggest polluted waterways in Gladstone were linked to the mutations, he said his team wouldn’t rule that out. The problem is that his team is finding such mutations in other Australian cities.

“In fact, I did some preliminary work in Sydney with native frogs and found abnormalities in around 6 to 8 percent of the population there,” Wilson said.

Gladstone cane toads were five times more likely to have abnormalities than toads in other cities, according to Wilson’s research.

High exposure to ultraviolet radiation and parasites, chemical runoff and airborne pollution can contribute to amphibian abnormalities.

“There are a multitude of potential causes,” stated Wilson. “What might be happening at one site could be different to what’s happening at another.”

A council-run team of Gladstone Toadbusters catch the toads for environmental research. The Toadbuster group catches as many as 500 toads in an hour.

“Definitely, follow-up studies are needed. We’ve seen malformations constantly over the past three years, and we need to find out why,” said Wilson.

“Until we find out what is in the water per-se, we can’t say anything,” Wilson said.

After the media frenzy, Wilson said the images in the video were three years old, but the problem is not going away.

“We’ve seen quite a significant increase in the percentage of toads with abnormalities,” he said.

“But at this stage, it isn’t necessarily a Gladstone thing, with places like Sydney seeing similar increases.”