Journal
BIOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2015.0863
Keywords
invasive species; Bufo marinus; taste aversion; conditioned taste aversion; ecological impact; varanid
Categories
Funding
- DPaW
- federal government's National Environmental Research Program
- Australian Research Council [fl120100074]
- Australian Postgraduate Award
- Val Street scholarship
- Wildlife Conservation Society
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In Australia, large native predators are fatally poisoned when they ingest invasive cane toads (Rhinella marina). As a result, the spread of cane toads has caused catastrophic population declines in these predators. Immediately prior to the arrival of toads at a floodplain in the Kimberley region, we induced conditioned taste aversion in free-ranging varanid lizards (Varanus panoptes), by offering them small cane toads. By the end of the 18-month study, only one of 31 untrained lizards had survived longer than 110 days, compared to more than half (nine of 16) of trained lizards; the maximum known survival of a trained lizard in the presence of toads was 482 days. In situ aversion training (releasing small toads in advance of the main invasion front) offers a logistically simple and feasible way to buffer the impact of invasive toads on apex predators.
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