The cane toad diet consists mainly of insects but a University of Sydney researcher has discovered they have an appetite for their own young, consuming up to 12 other cane toads in a lifetime.

Since their introduction to Australia in 1932, the toads have been a destructive force, their poison killing native fauna.

A female cane toad can produce up to 35,000 offspring in one clutch meaning that the number of cane toads has reached astronomical levels.

Although much research has been devoted to exploring methods of reducing and even wiping out the cane toad population, the creatures have proved to be highly resilient adversaries.

Adult cane toads wave one of the three toes on their hind legs, luring in the young who are fooled into thinking it is an insect. The unsuspecting youngster is then eaten.