A Stewart, Lakeside
I was interested to read Karen Gray Kilfoil’s statement that guttural toads cannibalise Western leopard toads (“Invasive cannibal toads pose threat,” Echo, November 24).
I worked with hundreds of leopard toads from 2001 to 2003 while writing a scientific paper and didn’t ever come across any cannibalism by the gutteral toads.
What did become apparent was that there is hybridization (cross-breading) between the two toads. This, together with already rapidly dwindling numbers of the leopard toads due to habitat loss and traffic, does not bode well for the survival of Amietophrynus pantherinus.
