Invasive cane toads that live in Australia’s cities have developed different physical traits from those in the countryside, which may be due to rapid adaptation to urban environments
Cane toad taken in an urban setting of Townsville, QLD, Australia.
Hirotaka Komine
The invasive cane toads that live in Australia’s cities have developed different physical traits from those in the countryside, and these changes may be due to rapid adaptation to their differing lifestyles.
“In general, urban environments have less predators than rural environments,” says Hirotaka Komine at Yamagata University in Japan.
He and his colleagues collected nearly 600 cane toads (Rhinella marina) from 18 locations in and surrounding three cities in northern Queensland, Australia. Along with body length and …