Cane Toads: An Unnatural History

Woah, population explosion of giant poison toads invades Austrailia! No, it's not a late-night 70's B sci-fi, it's real life eco-bizarrity complete with mad scientist wielding a v.w. bus. This is perhaps the funniest piece of celluloid ever to give you the shivers about the seemingly limitless expanse of human stupidity. It traces the history of the cane toad in Australia from the seemingly innocent introduction of forty individuals into an eastern pond to the hopping copulating frenzy that now covers something like a third of the country. This movie gives you the works; their life cycle complete with in depth look at their, shall we say, unique sex lives, a magnetically grotesque interview involving doll clothes, and charming soundtrack integrating late-night 70's B movie effects with bouncy bluegrass. (An extra treat for all you Crowed House fans will be Neil and Tim Finn's piece sung from the point of view of the great cane toad himself.) Some people keep them as pets, put out bowls of catfood, and toad-watch for pleasure, others hate them with a white hot rage. Hear the facts, see the toads, and decide which side of the fence is for you. Either way, nicely paced, scientifically interesting, and well shot; Cane Toads is a feindishly hilarious black comedy of documentary, sure to please.

"When you look at our imports, what we brought into Australia, this must have been a great country long before the white man came to the joint. We brought in foxes and hares and then to cap it all off, we bring this monstrous thing called a toad in."

Great footage of these fascinating creatures breeding and eating, informative, and another tale of mankind mucking around with the natural order of things without proper consideration, to disastrous effect. The hubris of believing in the simple fix prescribed by entomologist Raquel Dexter at a conference in Puerto Rico in 1932 to help the sugar cane industry, and the long-lasting consequences, are depressing to consider. It's also ironic that the cane beetle problem was not addressed in the slightest in this importation of a new species, and was later handled with pesticide. While it's interesting that many of the residents of Queensland view the toads as friends and live harmoniously with them (like Elvie Grieg, that elderly woman who feeds them and says that if anyone tried to hurt one around her, there "would be a lot of noise, and they would realize I wasn't a lady"), the clear-eyed views of others, pointing out that native species die off from the deadly toxins emitted by the toads, is sobering. As predicted, the situation has gotten worse in the 35 years since this film was made. This one packs a punch in its 49 minutes.

This is one of the most enjoyable films I have ever seen. I saw it many years ago in the theater. I'm pleased to see it is being reshown by the Sundance channel. I'm looking forward to seeing it again. Check it out.

"Cane Toads: An Unnatural History" still ranks as one of the funniest movies I've seen. Don't get me wrong: in Australia's tropical North, cane toads themselves are no laughing matter, especially among despairing conservationists. This short film stands as a memorial to human folly in importing the beast from Hawaii in the first place to deal with a sugarcane beetle which in the event it had zero impact on, preferring to lay waste to the local fauna instead. It is also a monument to human eccentricity - less about the despised, amazingly opportunistic cane toad than the reactions it has inspired among the human populace. I still treasure the memory of the local resident who wanted his town council to erect a memorial to the outstandingly ugly amphibian in the main street - presumably on the grounds that nobody could think of anything else worth memorialising there. (Inexplicably, his visionary proposal received scant support.) Overseas viewers may not appreciate that to other Australians, the movie's eccentric cast of characters came as no great surprise. North Queenslanders actually take some pride in being a little different. I'd like to think that the lesson has been learned, but the news that ravenous 400-lb carp are being released into a Texan lake in order to deal with a water weed infestation gives me no confidence.

Fairly interesting documentary about the deliberate introduction of the Giant toad (Bufo marinus) or Cane toad as it is called here, into Australia and the ecological havoc it has wrought there. It seems years ago, scientists thought this toad would help control pests that were destroying Australia's sugar cane crop. The toads did little to control the pests that were destroying the sugar cane crops, but they did manage to survive and thrive, reproducing in great numbers. They have brought havoc on local wildlife ever since. This could serve as a future warning to any scientist who gets the brilliant idea of introducing a new species to area it is not native.

While I found this documentary interesting and fun to watch, as an amateur naturalist with an interest in amphibians, a lot of important information about this creature was left out. For example, the film states the toad was introduced from Hawaii into Australia. It never mentions that Cane toads were also introduced into Hawaii, and are not a native species there either (Hawaii has no native amphibians.) Bufo marinus is a native of Latin America. For the record: its natural range extends from Patagonia north, throughout much of South and Central America, into central Mexico, where its range extends through a narrow band into to Northern Mexico where the toads natural range just enters the United States in the Big Bend region of Texas. The film also doesn't mention these toads had little effect on pests destroying the sugar cane crop in Hawaii either. Nor does it mention they were introduced in Florida for the same reason, with little positive effect there as well. With this toads introduction being a failure in so many places, I was hoping this film would raise a few questions on just what was going on in the heads of all those scientists back in early 20th century who spread this creature all over the world.