This is a classic natural history film.
The cane toads didn’t eat the cane grubs, and their poison soon killed off just about every predator.
It’s a very good example of what happens when you introduce a species to solve a problem.
These big toads will eat just about anything, so they probably did eat cane grubs when they were offered them!
It doesn’t mean that they would eat them in wild. Cane grubs were never available on the surface of the ground for the toads to eat them. One species climbed the top of the sugar cane plant, where the toad couldn’t get them. The other was on the ground for the toads to eat them, but the fields had no cover on them for the toads to feel secure about using them as hunting grounds.
These toads will eat a cane grub if offered one. A great white shark would eat a gazelle if one happened to be swimming nearby, but I don’t think anyone would suggest using great white sharks to control gazelle numbers. However, that same logic led to an ecological disaster in Australia.
The first one of these toads I ever saw was in Hawaii. It looked like an American toad on steroids.
This film also includes a discussion of using toad venom as a drug. I think I need to offer this public service announcement:
I love your analogy so much.
It didn’t make my second rewrite.
But I’ll put it back.