Urban toads show themselves to be bolder – before and after invasion

Many of us are now familiar with urban commensal species - those that have adapted to life in towns and cities and can be seen to adapt their behaviour to exploit their new surroundings. Some of these urbanised species are then introduced to novel systems, and go on to become invasive.

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Read more about the article Miniature Guttural Toads on Mauritius and Réunion stun researchers
Guttural Toads, native to mainland Africa, were deliberately introduced from Durban to Mauritius in 1922 in an attempt to biocontrol the cane beetle, and from there moved to Réunion in 1927 as a biocontrol of malarial carrying mosquitoes. Photo credit: James Baxter-Gilbert

Miniature Guttural Toads on Mauritius and Réunion stun researchers

Researchers from the DSI/NRF Centre for Invasion Biology at Stellenbosch University have found that, scarcely a hundred years after Guttural Toads were introduced to the islands of Mauritius and Réunion, their overall body size has been reduced by up to a third compared to their counterparts in South Africa.

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