catches’ locations. They can also exhibit crepuscular habits, being found swimming and feeding in the early morning and evening. The animal does not tolerate low temperatures well, so they prefer terrestrial prey in winter over the aquatic species. They also spend longer winter periods in the warmth of their burrows. A relatively new addition to their diet is, specifically, the heart and liver of the toxic cane toad, in regions where the toads have moved into their territory. The rakali have naturally figured out how to avoid the toad’s poisonous shoulder glands by flipping them onto their backs for ease of dispatch. They are, seemingly, unaffected by any poisonous secretions on the toads’ skin which they may inadvertently ingest. This makes the rakali one of the very few natural defenses in the fight to contain the cane toad’s population boom and spreading westward. Since the early twentieth century (when cane toads were blindly introduced to supposedly control sugar cane beetles on farms), the toads in Australia have multiplied from an initial 100 animals to as many as 100 million. Their poisonous skin secretions (which the eggs and tadpoles contain as well) can kill a dog or cat, and have contributed to the decline of several species of Australian reptiles, mammals, fish, and birds. Their diet makes this species susceptible to infestations of nematodes, with large numbers of Cosmocephalus australiensis recorded in 1959, burrowed into their stomach walls. Other worms, namely cestodes and trematodes, occur in high numbers in the small intestines. Sparganosis also afflicts rakali; these parasites coil under the skin surface around the shoulder and back region. The extent of infestation, and the varieties of helminths that are present, vary according to the region which they inhabit. Metabolism The rakali is not well adapted to hot and cold extremes as it has poor insulation qualities. Aquatic mammals need to maintain relatively constant body temperature to prevent or compensate for their thermally hostile environment. One of the few diurnal Australian rodents, they cannot maintain their body temperature below 15° and risk hyperthermia in temperatures that exceed 35°. Their vascular system has network adaptions for heat loss, but no major heat conserving vascular retia. This causes poor thermoregulation and poor insulative capacity in wet fur. They control body temperature by remaining in the burrow in the heat of the day in summer and by foraging during the day in winter. Expending