Where water is scarce, ponds aren't safe for female cane toads

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-11-12 11:01

Australia; NSW; NT

Weiting Liu via iNaturalist (CC-BY-4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Staying hydrated is a dangerous task for female cane toads living in places where water is scarce, according to Australian researchers who say a trip to the pond or dam means risking being drowned by a horde of amorous males. Observing cane toads at the arid-zone edge of where they live in Australia, the researchers say the toads rely on visiting artificial ponds every few nights to stay hydrated. However, if a male cane toad tries to mate with a female in the pond and she ends up in deep water, she faces a high risk of drowning, they say - and a trip to the pond means encountering numerous males intending to mate. Likely because of this, the researchers say populations around ponds and dams are highly male-biased, and perhaps keeping it that way will ultimately make it harder for cane toads to reproduce.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Arid habitats intensify sexual conflict in invasive cane toads (Rhinella marina)

Royal Society Open Science

Reproduction is risky business for a female cane toad, especially in an area where a scarcity of ponds forces a female to run the gauntlet of hundreds of amorous males every time she needs to hydrate. Our experiments suggest that females are at a high risk of drowning whenever they enter the water; and so, they try to avoid places where the males congregate.

Attachments

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public. Research URLs will go live after the embargo ends.

Research The Royal Society, Web page The URL will go live after the embargo ends

Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Macquarie University, Charles Darwin University

Funder: We thank the Minderoo Foundation and the Australian Research Council (grant LP220100164) for funding.

Media Contact/s

Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.