Data from: Survival of the feces: does a nematode lungworm adaptively manipulate the behavior of its cane toad host?

Parasites can enhance their fitness by modifying the behavior of their
hosts in ways that increase rates of production and transmission of
parasite larvae. We used an antihelminthic drug to experimentally alter
infections of lungworms (Rhabdias pseudosphaerocephala) in cane toads
(Rhinella marina). We then compared subsequent behaviors of dewormed toads
versus toads that retained infections. Both in the laboratory and in the
field, the presence of parasites induced hosts to select higher body
temperatures (thereby increasing rates of lungworm egg production), to
defecate in moister sites, and to produce feces with higher moisture
content (thereby enhancing survival of larvae shed in feces). Because
those behavioral modifications enhance rather than decrease parasite
fitness, they are likely to have arisen as adaptive manipulations of host
behavior rather than as host adaptations to combat infection or as
nonadaptive consequences of infection on host physiology. However, the
mechanisms by which lungworms alter cane toad thermal preference and
defecation are not known. Although many examples of host manipulation by
parasites involve intermediate hosts facilitating their own demise, our
findings indicate that manipulation of definitive hosts can be as subtle
as when and where to defecate.