Frog leather - Toad leather

Frog leather and toad leather

Frog and toad leathers are quite rare and used mainly for bags or other small objects. They have a wart-like surface, which is partly smoothed in production.

Typical, wart-like surface of the cane toad.

Bullfrog

Leather handbags from the skin of the bull frog are rarities - especially, when the head is incorporated.

Skin of the bullfrog.

Leather handbag made of bullfrog leather from about 1930. Head of the bullfrog with glass eyes.

Leather handbag made of bullfrog leather and bullfrog skin seen in the DLM - German Leather Museum in Offenbach.

Cane toad

Cane toads were introduced to the Pacific region more than 60 years ago from their natural habitat (South and Central America). The plan was that the toads would provide natural pest control throughout all plantations, from sugar cane to rice. Unfortunately, the experiment proved to be catastrophic for the local fauna. A single adult female can lay more than 30,000 eggs under favourable conditions. The animals can reach a body length of more than 20 cm and a weight of over one kilo.

Due to the lack of natural enemies and diseases, the cane toad population has increased significantly. They have a voracious appetite, eating nearly everything, including most insects, small animals (lizards, snakes and other amphibians) or little birds. Toads, which occupy huge amounts of natural or artificial waters (especially vestibules), can make the water totally uninhabitable for other animals.

Since they have now developed into large pests, they have been officially fought as a plague for many years. The negative ecological consequences caused by their artificial settlement now serve as an example of the enormous risks of uncontrolled and unsupervised biological pest control.