The cane toad is spreading fast across Australia, killing anything that eats it. Yet the feared wildlife catastrophe hasn't happened
AS I drive along the highway from Darwin, through a town called Humpty Doo, it's hard to believe I'm in cane toad territory. It's a scorching 42 °C and the tropical savannah alongside the road is bone dry, a patchwork of fire scars, red dirt and brown leaves. It is the end of the dry season, and there has been no rain to speak of for more than three months. This isn't the kind of place you would expect to find water-loving amphibians from the Amazon – not even killer supertoads – but they are here.
I'm heading to a nearby wildlife reserve called Fogg Dam to visit biologist Rick Shine. After spending decades studying native water pythons, Shine switched his focus to cane toads as they neared Fogg Dam ...
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