Hi, I am a Cane Toad, and I am one of the species of Amphibians that belongs to the family of true Toads. The Cane Toad is also known as the giant neotropical toad or marine toad I feel I am very, very unique but a deadly variety of the toads. Not many people know about me, but once I get into your neighborhood in the southern areas of the United States you won’t be too happy to see me. I am short, but I do have very powerful short legs. My front feet are un-webbed, but my back or hind legs have a tough, leathery webbing at the base.
People are amazed by my large head with ridges above my horizontal aligned eyes, and which meet at my snout. Our eyes are dark brown, or golden. My head looks flat and compressed. I have a large parotid gland placed behind my ear. If you ever had the chance to touch me, which I would not if I was YOU, you would find that my skin is dry and warty to touch. The color of my skin depends on where you find me. I usually can camouflage for safety. My basic colors are either grayish yellow, reddish brown, or olive brown.
My belly or underside is lighter in color such creamy tones, or yellow. Females have a smoother skin and are more brownish in color than our males. We are very hardy and can adopt to any temperature except extreme cold. We can even live with the loss of 50 percent of our body water. We toads like our habitat to be subtropical forest, or woodlands near water, but our environment seems to be changing. Sometimes you will find us in gardens, or even in backyards.
We came from Australia, South or Central America. We were introduced to the US to help control pests of various crops, including sugar cane. That is how they got the nick name of Cane Toad. People do not like us because we can move rapidly and puff up our lungs to make us look bigger, to frighten off our predators. One thing the reason why people want to kill us is we have a deadly poisonous toxic bufotoxin. The paranoid glands I told you about produce venom and its is distributed along our bodies.
If any predator takes a bite of us, they will get a mouthful of poison and they will be dead in 15 minutes. We can squirt people or eject the venom for a short distant and if it enters your eyes, nose, mouth and even on your skin, you can be temporarily blind, swell and have horrible pain. If you ever know we are around and hear a loud, purring trill noise we are trying to attract a female. If you see me, just leave me alone, and I will leave you alone.
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