POISON TOAD LUNCH The sun shines down on a river in northern Australia A goanna basks in the heat This large lizard is looking for its next meal It spots a cane toad nearby The lizard moves toward the brown bumpy toad Then it eats the toad whole The goanna quickly becomes sick First the lizard’s heart starts beating Monitors are large lizards found in Oceania Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa In Australia people call these lizards goannas 5 CHAPTER 1
much faster Next the lizard loses control of its body Then its heart stops working Finally the lizard dies The toad was its last meal That’s because cane toads are poisonous Their poison has killed thousands of native lizards across Australia Cane toads are dangerous to more than just lizards They have changed ecosystems in many parts of Australia People have also brought this invasive species to other areas in the world However Australia has the world’s largest problems with cane toads By 2020 the toads had spread across 386,000 square miles 1 million sq km of the country 6
A cane toad’s call is a series of low quick sounds People have compared it to the sound of a distant tractor Many scientists believe that the cane toad is one of the worst invasive species on the planet 7
