page_title: Cane toads in Australia
section_title: Novel uses
hierarchical_section_title: Cane toads in Australia / Novel uses
caption_attribution_description: Bufo marinus Deutsch: Aga-Kröte als Geldbörse umgearbeitet - ein Ausdruck der Abneigung mancher Australier gegen diese Krötenart English: A purse made from Bufo marinus. Español: El Bufo marinus como bolso
context_page_description: The cane toad in Australia is regarded as an exemplary case of a "feral species"—others being rabbits, foxes, cats and dogs. Australia's relative isolation prior to European Colonisation and the industrial revolution—both of which dramatically increased traffic and importation of novel species—allowed development of a complex, interdepending system of ecology, but one which provided no natural predators for many of the species subsequently introduced. The recent, sudden inundation of foreign species has led to severe breakdowns in Australian ecology, after overwhelming proliferation of a number of introduced species for which the continent has no efficient natural predators or parasites, and which displace native species—in some cases these species are physically destructive to habitat as well. Cane toads have been very successful as an invasive species, having become established in more than 15 countries within the past 150 years. In the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, the Australian Government listed the impacts of the cane toad as a "key threatening process".
context_section_description: Attempts have been made to make use of dead cane toads, which can number in the thousands and cause hygiene problems. This includes processing the carcasses into liquid fertilisers.
  Their skin can be made into leather, and novelty cane-toad purses made of the fore-body and abdomen have been made.
  In the Torres Strait Islands, where the toads arrived in about 2014, one entrepreneur is tanning the hides to create a durable leather, and creating luxury fashion handbags from the skins.
caption: A purse made from a cane toad.
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