Dr. Chris Burns, Australia's Northern Territory Health Minister, said "Toads are Public Enemy #1."  A new humorous and informative documentary by Mark Lewis, shows he is not the only one with a strong opinion about the South American cane toad and their seemingly unstoppable journey across Australia.

In 1988, Mark Lewis first exposed the world to one of Australia's greatest environmental missteps in his short documentary, Cane Toads: An Unnatural History.  His second toad-focused documentary, Cane Toads: The Conquest 3Dbeautifully captures the environment of this strange and amusing amphibian.  The documentary explores the history, science and human conflict of this creature in an up-close and personal fashion. Lewis included a variety of interviews with experts and citizens, who either love the cane toad or despise them, to demonstrate the angst and odd reactions the cane toads seem to provoke.

The visually-masterful film is the first 3D film shot in Australia and takes an in-depth look at the invasive, heavily-built cane toad. In 1935, 102 of the South American cane toads were imported into Australia in an attempt to control the beetle population from ravishing the Australian sugar cane crops. As fate would have it, the toads did not find the beetles all that desirable and had a hard time catching them since they could fly and the toads couldn't.  So in essence, the cane toads did nothing to control the beetle population.

With virtually no predators, the population of cane toads has exploded to an estimated population of 1.5 billion toads in Australia today.  Cane toads will eat just about anything that they can swallow. Their diet is mainly made up of living insects. The cane toads are always hungry and rapidly reproduce, making them one of Australia's biggest pests.

Cane toad tadpoles are toxic to animals and adult cane toads secrete a hallucinogenic toxin in small doses. The toxin is lethal in larger doses.  One scene in the film showcases "Dobby," a 4-year old cross-breed dog who licks a cane toad to get high.  A common occurrence among Australian dogs, according to one of the experts featured in the film.

Nature lovers and fans of popular culture will find something to enjoy in this documentary. Watch the trailer or learn more about the film on Filmbuffet.

Cane Toads: The Conquest is rated PG for disturbing images, language, drug references and brief smoking. Run time is 85 minutes.  Fans of the film are encouraged to join the Cane Toads: The Conquest discussion on the movie social site, Filmbuffet.