A native water rat can rip out the heart and liver of a cane toad with surgical precision.

They do this to avoid poisonous glands located behind the cane toad's head, according to recent research published in Australian Mammalogy.

Cane toads produce a poisonous cocktail of bufotoxins and bufogenins, making them deadly to most Australian animals.

But native water rats are not the only Australian animals that have learnt to dodge the poison and make a meal out of the cane toad — Rhinella marina.

Here are some of the native animals, and the sometimes ingenious methods they use to turn one of our worst pests into tasty tucker.

Rakali [native water rat] — Hydromys chrysogaster

Rakali are probably underappreciated because they're technically a rat, but they're actually better than platypus. ( Supplied: David Judge )

OK, so the aforementioned rakali or native water rat tops the list. It's also Australia's most underrated animal. Let me convince you.

1. They are clean, with cute, very un-rat-like round little muzzles. 2. They have such thick, soft, water-repelling fur they were once hunted for their prized pelts. 3. They nest in burrows along rivers like platypus, and like platypus, their presence indicates a healthy river system. 4. They have webbed back feet, also like a platypus, and they're one of only two amphibious Australian mammals. Yep, the other is the platypus.

A cane toad with its heart removed by a rakali. ( Supplied: Marissa Parrott )

In my humble opinion, the rakali is basically a platypus, but better. Because unlike the platypus, the rakali can turn the biggest cane toads into a smorgasbord platter a hipster chef would pay full price for.

Dr Marissa Parrott from Zoos Victoria made this discovery when she was working on the frontline of the cane toad advance in the Kimberley in north Western Australia, and she kept finding dead cane toads lying on the side of a creek bed — all with the same incisions in their bellies.

"We were finding up to five cane toads killed in this same way every morning. Fascinatingly they were all very large cane toads," Marissa said.

Using cameras and sampling, she found that the rakali were targeting the biggest toads, flipping them over, slicing open their abdomen, and removing and eating their heart and liver.

"[They] were removing the gallbladder because it contains things like toxic bile salts," she said.

"It's the first time we've found native Australian animals targeting the largest [toads], which are the most dangerous and toxic."

If you're still unconvinced that the rakali should be Australia's new faunal emblem, ask yourself: How many kangaroos have I seen killing cane toads lately?

Estuarine ['saltwater'] crocodiles

Estuarine crocs have some resilience to cane toad poison, but freshies don't. ( Supplied: DPAW )

Here's the weird thing: Estuarine crocodiles can munch on cane toads without too much ill effect, but freshies die at the first whiff of toad toxin, according to environmental scientist Associate Professor Jonathan Webb from UTS.

"Endemic freshwater crocodiles get absolutely hammered," Jonathan said.

"Saltwater crocs evolved in Asia and are likely to have evolved alongside [toads]."

While our cane toads came from South America via Hawaii, their relatives with similar bufotoxins are widespread throughout Asia.

So while our saltwater crocodiles have developed a bit of resistance to toad toxin in their evolutionary past, freshwater crocodiles evolved here, and are completely unaccustomed to it.

There aren't really any clever tricks to how estuarine crocodiles eats toads though. Like an extra spicy som tam, they munch them down and hope for the best.

Wolf spiders

'Massive spider hanging onto a dead cane toad on the front of my door,' the uploader said. ( Reddit: SmileyUnchained )

Wolf spiders are the headline for this section because their name sounds extra bad.

But in reality there are a whole suite of insects, arachnids and other invertebrates that eat cane toads, reptile and toad expert Professor Rick Shine from Macquarie University said.

"A lot of ants, spiders, the waterbugs don't seem too affected by the poison," Rick said.

Freshwater crayfish, diving beetles, dragonfly larvae and mosquitoes also feed on cane toads, though most of these are in egg and tadpole form.

But wolf spiders and native tarantulas have been observed taking down fully grown toads.

A picture was posted on Reddit in 2015 of what appears to be a huntsman or wolf spider dragging a cane toad up a door.

The original poster, from Brisbane commented:

"Not much light at 5am, so in all my wisdom bend [sic] down to have a closer inspection. And yep, massive spider hanging onto a dead cane toad on the front of my door!"

The image was unable to be verified, but Robert Raven from the Queensland Museum told Australian Geographic that wolf spiders had been seen dragging cane toads around that were too big to fit back in the spider's burrow.

Keelbacks and red-bellied black snakes

Keelback's evolutionary lineage comes from Asia. ( Audience submitted: Graham Ruckert )

So remember how estuarine crocodiles can eat toads because they hark from Asia where they evolved alongside toads with similar toxins?

Same goes for the keelback or freshwater snake, according to Tim Cutajar from the Australian Museum.

"The keelback snake has the evolutionary advantage of being 'pre-adapted' to life with toads," Tim said.

The heads of red-bellied blacks have been observed to be getting smaller where cane toad numbers are high. ( ABC Open contributor Karl Granzien )

"Its ancestors were some of the most recent snakes to arrive to Australia."

Cane toad toxins do make keelbacks a bit sick though, and they'll preference frogs over toads when given a choice.

Slatey-grey snakes are another native reptile partial to a bit of Rhinella marina.

But red-bellied black snakes on the other hand, don't have that recent Asian ancestry.

While they've developed a mild tolerance to toad poison, where there are a lot of toads, red-bellies get around the problem with some rapid evolution, Tim said.

"Most interesting is that in [those] parts, these snakes have evolved smaller heads, which physically prevent them from eating large and therefore more poisonous toads."

Kites, crows and...swamphens?

Swamphens are known for hanging around waterways making silly noises, but at least one has eaten a cane toad. ( Getty Images: phototrip )

You might have heard that crows flip toads on their backs and eat their organs.

But crows have also been known to eat the whole toad, parotid gland (the poison bit) and all, Jonathan said.

Strangely, some crows take it in their stride, while others drop stone-cold dead.

"Some crows can eat them and be fine and others will eat them and die," he said.

"The same seems to be the case with kookaburras."

A few other bird species are also partial to a bit of warty golf ball, according to Rick.

"A lot of the birds tend to eat the tongues out of them," he said.

"The kites that patrol the highways pick up the road kill and eat them."

Tawny frogmouths and bush-stone curlews have been known to partake, and Tim said swamphens seem to be getting in on the act.

"There is one case of an Australasian swamphen killing an adult cane toad and extracting parts out through its mouth. It fed these parts to its chicks," Tim said.

"This does seem to indicate an intentional and successful hunt, but it should be noted that it's not known whether or not the swamphen and its chicks survived."

That old chestnut.

Melomys

They're not quite as cute as platypus, but their enthusiasm for toad munching makes up for it. ( Getty Images: Henry Cook )

Rounding out our list is the melomys — a small native rodent that is not quite as impressive as a rakali, but still very worthy of a mention.

If the name sounds familiar, that's probably because the Bramble Cay melomys holds the dubious honour of being Australia's first climate-change-induced mammal extinction.

A press release from then-environment minister Melissa Price announced its demise earlier this year.

However, there are several other species of melomys found around Australia, and they have a taste for cane toad.

They will actively preference them over other creatures according to Rick.

"In captivity they'll eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner — they love them," he said.

"Most times they don't want to eat the parotid gland, but some will. We've had them eat the whole thing."

Melomys, we salute you.