Invasive and introduced species can pose major ecological challenges to vulnerable native wildlife. Biodiversity hotspots, in particular, require protection from this significant cause of species loss. One hotspot, Madagascar, is experiencing the accidental introduction of a potentially ecologically damaging species – the toxin carrying bufonid toad, Duttaphyrnus melanostictus. The presence of these toxic invaders drives fears that if such a species gains a foothold widespread poisoning of Malagasy predators could occur, mirroring the invasion of Australia by Rhinella marina. This includes numerous endemic and endangered species. The mechanism by which the toxin acts upon organisms has been previously identified via the study of toxin resistant versus toxin non-resistant taxa. Specific amino acid substitutions are required on the organism’s Na+/K+–ATPase for them to be resistant to bufonid toxin. This solution to combat the toxin is widely consistent across taxa providing a method to discover and predict toxin resistance or vulnerability. Here I investigate the Na+/K+–ATPase gene to detect vulnerability of a selection of Malagasy fauna to the toxics of Duttaphrynus melanostictus. It is discovered that no tested species on
Madagascar have the capacity to survive ingestion of the novel toxin. The
vulnerability is found in all examined species, including snakes, frogs, lizards, lemurs and tenrecs. The results suggest that the invasive Duttaphrynus melanostictus is liable to have significant impact on Malagasy fauna.