A reviled Australian bird has figured out how to eat one of the few animals locals hate more - cane toads.
There are few Australian animals more reviled than the white ibis.
The toad's skin contains venom which it releases when threatened, causing most animals that come into contact with it to die quickly of a heart attack. "Ibis were flipping the toads about, throwing them in the air, and people just wondered what on earth they were doing," she told the BBC. They seem to be less susceptible to the poison than other animals, like snakes, mammals or crocodiles.But they can still die from too much of it and it tastes "awful", Prof Shine says., birds like hawks and crows rather quickly figured out how eat around the poison glands on their shoulder.But this is the first time Prof Shine - who has studied toads for 20 years - has heard of birds using a method like this to eat them whole.
Some species are slowly recognising the pests are "a very bad choice for lunch" and there are suggestions others are undergoing genetic changes that leave them less susceptible to the poison.
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