Native Toad Fights Back Against Yellow Crazy-Ant Invasion

After so many tales of invasive species overwhelming hapless natives, scientists have found a native toad in Indonesia that’s fighting back.

The common Sulawesi toad turns out to be a prodigious eater of ants, even aggressive invading ones.  On the island of Sulawesi, the Ingerophrynus celebensis toads readily feast on yellow crazy ants, which are colonizing the island as well as other tropical locations.

Yellow crazy ants get their name from their color and their zigzag scurrying, and they have crowded out native ants and disrupted ecosystems elsewhere. The invaders meet any foe aggressively, releasing noxious chemicals during battle. The Sulawesi toads eat them nonetheless.

During a week of toad abundance on Sulawesi farms, test plots hopping with toads had as little as one-third of the invasive-ant populations found on plots where fencing kept toads out.  The study could be a first in suggesting that a native toad might control populations of invasive ants.

Read more in the original article here.