Australian Pregnancy Testing

There was a big exhibit in the museum on The Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne. This photo and caption won the 'did I read that right' award for the day. The caption says ""Male Queensland cane toads were used for the first time in Australia for pregnancy testing, 1950". This cried out for Google, where one learns that "Cane toads used to be used for pregnancy testing in humans. A woman's urine is injected subcutaneously into the lymph glands of a male toad, resulting in spermatazoa becoming present in the toad's urine if the woman is pregnant. "

Pregnancy testing seems to be one of the only positive aspects of cane toads. They were introduced into Australia in the 1930s to eat sugarcane beetles. It took the toads no time at all to loose interest in the beetles and start eating everything else they could find. The toads are now a big menace, literally and figuratively. They can weigh over four pounds, and pretty much nothing can eat them because they are poisonous (probably why they felt at home in Australia).