The wave of pesky cane toads that is spreading across the Australian landscape with a rapacious disregard for the continent's delicate ecological balance might be slowed by a complaint familiar to anyone who travels frequently: a sore back. And one cane toad biologist is suggesting that this weakness may be the key to reining in the invasive amphibian's impact on native Australian species.

University of Sydney biologist Rick Shine said in a statement today (Dec. 2) that cane toads are getting bigger and faster as they continue to fan out across Australia from Queensland across the Northern Territory; researchers estimate they can travel as far as a kilometer in a single night. They're not just growing, Shine told Reuters, "They have different personalities, different shapes and are developing different physiologies."

But they're also encountering problems in their longer spines, Shine said. Reuters quoted Shine saying that, "We are seeing toads in the Northern Territory with spinal arthritis -- big, bony lumps on their spine."

These super toads may have evolved themselves into a corner, according to Shine. "The pressure they are putting on their backs, they aren't built for it," he told The Northern Territory News. "They've evolved to this point and they've gotten to the edge, but their bodies can't handle any more. They are clearly in discomfort. They are clearly in pain. But they keep moving."

Shine also told the paper that he also found bacteria in the joints of the arthritic toads that commonly inhabit the bodies of humans with failing immune systems. "This is a vulnerability. If we can take advantage of this, we can wipe them out," he told The Northern Territory News. "Eventually, evolution would favour genes better suited to deal with this, but that is quite a few years away. We have an opportunity now to strike."

Related stories:

• Stopping the Cane Toad [April 2008]
• Say your prayers, cane toads [4th April 2008]
• Cane toads wreaking more havoc [6th June 2007]