Page 174 - An Anthology of Intriguing Animals (DK)
P. 174
Toad
Toads try to look bigger to scare off predators
by inflating their lungs to puff themselves up.
A
chorus of croaking coming from a pond at night will show you
the way to a group of toads or frogs. You can tell a toad from
a frog by a toad’s rough, warty skin. In European stories, toads are
often used by witches in their spells, but in ancient Chinese tales,
toads can be magicians themselves.
The largest toad is the cane toad from South America. Its appetite is
enormous. In the 1930s, thousands were shipped to Australia to eat
beetle pests. Unfortunately, they spread, and now there are millions
of cane toads in Australia. They make a milky poison from their neck,
which kills animals that eat them. Now the toads are the pests!
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