Cane toads: an unnatural history

Australia, 1987

Film
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Bufo Marinus, the cane toad, was introduced into Queensland in 1935 for a specific reason - to combat the grey-back beetle that was destroying the sugar cane crop. The mission failed : the beetle could fly and the cane toad couldn’t. Oblivious of its failure, the cane toad settled extremely well into its new surroundings and proceeded to breed so rapidly that it has now become a pest of plague proportions. This amusing documentary blends biological fact with human comment to show how the cane toads have become an accepted part of local culture and popular mythology.

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