Abstract
Many invasive species exploit the disturbed habitats created by human activities. Understanding the effects of habitat disturbance on invasion success, and how disturbance interacts with other factors (such as biotic resistance to the invaders from the native fauna) may suggest new ways to reduce invader viability. In tropical Australia, commercial livestock production can facilitate invasion by the cane toad (Rhinella marina), because hoofprints left by cattle and horses around waterbody margins provide distinctive (cool, moist) microhabitats; nevertheless the same microhabitat can inhibit the success of cane toads by increasing the risks of predation or drowning. Metamorph cane toads actively select hoofprints as retreat-sites to escape dangerous thermal and hydric conditions in the surrounding landscape. However, hoofprint geometry is important: in hoofprints with steep sides the young toads are more likely to be attacked by predatory ants (Iridomyrmex reburrus) and are more likely to drown following heavy rain. Thus, anthropogenic changes to the landscape interact with predation by native taxa to affect the ability of cane toads in this vulnerable life-history stage to thrive in the harsh abiotic conditions of tropical Australia.
Highlights
Under the Darwinian paradigm that species are intricately adapted to the areas they inhabit, we might expect that few taxa would be able to invade regions that experience climatic conditions very different from those in their native range
We explore the effects of commercial livestock production on aspects of habitat availability and use by invasive cane toads (Rhinella marina) in tropical Australia, and examine how livestock-induced habitat modifications have affected the interaction between invasive toads and native predators
The drying muddy edges of ponds in agricultural landscapes in tropical Australia are pock-marked with the hoofprints of domestic livestock that use the ponds as watering sources
Summary
Under the Darwinian paradigm that species are intricately adapted to the areas they inhabit, we might expect that few taxa would be able to invade regions that experience climatic conditions very different from those in their native range. The green-and-golden bellfrog (Litoria aurea) has a natural distribution in temperate eastern Australia, but has been successfully translocated to very different climates in the oceanic islands of New Zealand, Vanuatu and New Caledonia [4,5]. One key to this flexibility is reliance upon the distinctive habitats created by human activities. Many anthropogenically modified habitats are prone to invasion [8]
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