I can't wait to hear about genetically modified wild dogs to hunt and eat the toads that somehow turned the disadvantage into an advantage. No idea how, but it seems like the next step.

Then releasing big cats to hunt the dogs once that goes wrong.

The Economist wrote about this recently too [1]. The most fascinating part is how they’re evolving to spread faster and faster:

Attempts to control the toads have been going on for decades, yet their advance has accelerated. In the tropics, they now travel up to 70km westward every wet season, compared with 10km when they first arrived. They are thus poised to enter some of Western Australia’s most treasured ecological areas.

Toad biologists call this acceleration the Olympic Village effect. It is a superb example of evolution in action. Only the most athletic toads make it to the invasion front, where they breed. Over the generations, toads on the front have thus developed larger size, longer legs and even an urge to travel in a single direction.

[1] https://economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/01/22/gene...

If you haven't seen it, I recommend the movie "Cane Toads: An Unnatural History".

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130529/

The "Peter Pan" mutants sound clever, but biocontrol has such a dodgy history. I wonder what the impact of a permanently paedomorphic sub-population would be on the water insect population (both good and bad)? I take it since they're at the point of running field trials they'll have some data on that soon.

If these outgrow the Goliath Tadpole¹, they could be the next big fishing prize. I wonder how the French would cook them?

1) https://www.livescience.com/63238-goliath-giant-tadpole.html

What could go wrong?

Cane toad tadpoles and eggs also contain the poison bufotoxin.

Strangely that poison is what they use to find the eggs/siblings to eat.

You can squeeze the poison out of a toad and use it as bait for cane toad tadpoles, or buy it.