1 3 Oecologia DOI 10.1007/s00442-017-3871-y BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY – ORIGINAL RESEARCH The impact of transportation and translocation on dispersal behaviour in the invasive cane toad Lachlan Pettit 1 · Matthew Greenlees 1 · Richard Shine 1 Received: 19 July 2016 / Accepted: 10 April 2017 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017 but amplified the dispersal of translocated toads only when released into woodland habitat. These behavioural shifts induced by translocation and transportation may affect an invader’s ability to colonise novel sites, and need to be incorporated into plans for invader control. Keywords Alien species · Translocation · Bufo marinus · Dispersal · Invasion Introduction The human-mediated dispersal of organisms threatens global biodiversity, with invasive species often ranked as the second largest driver of species extinction (Clavero and Garcia-Berthou 2005; Simberloff et al. 2013; but see Davis 2003). Growth in global trade and transport supply net- works has amplified the opportunity for biotic exchanges beyond natural distributions (Westphal et al. 2007), and has increased the variety of potential vectors facilitating inva- sion (Hulme 2009). To be successful, an invader must pass through several discrete stages along the invasion pathway (Blackburn et al. 2011). First the alien species must be transported outside of its natural distribution, and then it must survive introduction to a novel environment before eventually establishing popula- tions and spreading through the environment. However, of the huge numbers of organisms transported beyond native bound- aries, the vast majority do not become invaders (Vilà et al. 2009). To understand why few species introductions result in invasion, and why the rate of spread of successful invaders is variable, we need to understand all the mechanisms that influ- ence range expansion (Zenni and Nuñez 2013). Studies on the determinants of invader establishment have identified roles for factors such as propagule pressure Abstract Biological invasions transport organisms to novel environments; but how does the translocation process influence movement patterns of the invader? Plausibly, the stress of encountering a novel environment, or of the trans- port process, might induce rapid dispersal from the release site—potentially enhancing (or reducing) invader success and spread. We investigated the effect of transportation and release to novel environments on dispersal-relevant traits of one of the world’s most notorious invaders, the cane toad (Rhinella marina). We collected toads in northern New South Wales from heath and woodland habitats, manipu- lated the level of transport stress and either returned toads to their exact collection point (residents) or reciprocally translocated them to a novel site. Both translocation and the level of transport stress drastically altered toad disper- sal rates for at least 5 days post-release. Translocated toads (depending on their level of transport stress and release habitat) moved on average two to five times further per day (mean range 67–148 m) than did residents (mean range 22–34 m). Translocated toads also moved on more days, and moved further from their release point than did resident toads, but did not move in straighter lines. A higher level of transport stress (simulating long-distance translocation) had no significant effect on movements of resident toads Communicated by Jean-François Le Galliard. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00442-017-3871-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Richard Shine rick.shine@sydney.edu.au 1 School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia