Cat food latest weapon against toads

SYDNEY: Tins of cat food could prove the solution to reducing the number of toxic cane toads in Australia, one of the country's major pests, which environmentalists have tried for years to stop from killing off the native wildlife.

Scientists from the University of Sydney said that putting cat food close to ponds inhabited by baby cane toads attracts carnivorous ants that are also immune to the toads' poisonous skin. The ants attack and eat the baby toads.

"In one spot we tested, 98 percent of the baby toads were attacked within the first two minutes," researcher Rick Shine told Reuters.