In Taiwan, officials and environmentalists are scrambling to stop a cane toad invasion
- Unexpected discovery in community vegetable garden in the foothills of the central mountain range sparks immediate hunt for the invasive species
- Conservationists believe people started breeding the amphibians – seen as a symbol of wealth and good luck – after imports were banned in 2016
There should be no reason for these large and highly toxic amphibians to exist in Caotun, a township in the foothills of Taiwan’s central mountain range.
Cane toads are indigenous to South and Central America and while they have wrought a famously destructive path through places like Australia and the Philippines they had not been recorded in Taiwan.
That was until a few weeks ago when a local resident discovered some large amphibians hanging out in her community vegetable garden and uploaded a photograph online, a move that sparked an immediate toad hunt.
“A speedy and massive search operation is crucial when cane toads are first discovered,” Lin Chun-fu, an amphibian scientist at the government-run Endemic Species Research Institute said, as he explained why conservationists have since rushed to find and remove any cane toads.