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Toxic Toads Taking Over Australia
An anonymous reader writes "Yahoo News is reporting that toxic toads imported from Hawaii to help control the beetle population that was ravaging Australia's sugar cane crops have instead become pests themselves. From the article: 'The toads can grow as large as dinner plates and weigh up to 4.5 pounds. Their heads and backsides are studded with rows of warts that secrete a milky white toxin called bufotoxin. Because Australia has no native toads, many native predators such as snakes, lizards and mammals are very sensitive to the toxin. So when the toads spread, they immediately kill off many of the region's top predators.'"
From TFA: Cane toads have been a problem in Australia for a very long time now....this is hardly news.
So why is this a news story? From the TITLE of TFA: And from TFA: This is the actual 'news', not the summary's title. Given the FIRST sentence from TFA:
It's a shame that such an interesting story is derailed like this before it even gets started...the editors really do need to start reading submissions.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
OMFG! Giant Killer Toads taking over Australia! Say it isn't so!
Honestly, is this actually news to anyone?
You can learn pretty much everything you would ever want to know about the relationship between Cane Toads and the people of Australia in this delightful little movie:
http://www.cane-toad.com/
G.
Cane Toads is a great documentary about these little beasties. Not only does it give a good overview of the cane toad saga in Australia, but it also includes interviews with some really bizarre people (the guy imitating the mating calls of the cane toad is particularly amusing).
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Rabbits, toads, etc. Why is it always Australia that has these problems?
Note that the article says they were brought in in 1935, not exactly the peak of scientific understanding, and the problem has been known for 70 years.
Big Dick Cheney and his 28 guage shotgun!
These toads were introduced in 1935 and became a pest pretty much immediately.
It's good to keep up with the news, isn't it?
"Cats like plain crisps"
Skinner: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas! Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
I for one welcome our new toxic toads overlords!
Eventually, you'll see old people tossing pieces of meat at bears in the parks rather than pop-corn at pigeons.
Nobody's gay for Mole-Man.
Those toads are eating the crop!
That's what happens when you introduce a foreign species into an ecology that can't handle it.
Hahahahahahaha!
Haven't I seen this somewhere before?
Owner: [sweeping a bunch of toads out] Get out, get out! Shoo, shoo. Get out of here, yuck! These bloody things are everywhere. They're in the lift, in the lorry, in the bond wizard, and all over the malonga gilderchuck. Clerk: They're like kangaroos, but they're reptiles, they is. Marge: We have them in America. They're called bullfrogs. Clerk: What? That's an odd name. I'd have called them "chazzwazzers". Owner: [sweeping a bunch of toads out] Get out, get out! Shoo, shoo. Get out of here, yuck! These bloody things are everywhere. They're in the lift, in the lorry, in the bond wizard, and all over the malonga gilderchuck. Clerk: They're like kangaroos, but they're reptiles, they is. Marge: We have them in America. They're called bullfrogs. Clerk: What? That's an odd name. I'd have called them "chazzwazzers".
I haven't RTFA yet, but this isn't exactly news Down Here--Cane toads have been pests for years, at least in the tropical north.
The big news is that they are {evolving|being noodly appendaged} to be able to travel further (they're spreading at a rate of up to 60 km/year as opposed to 10 km/yr when they were introduced) and they are adapting to colder climates.
Apart from their utility in practicing my golf swing, this is quite scary stuff for those of us here in the south.
Cogito, ergo sig.
You've gotta love it. When you mess with the eco-system, you've pretty much got to be careful-as-hell. The lessons taught in the movie "Jurassic Park" have been discussed for decades prior to the book's writing. (Although, I think that perhaps if they bred the toads to be lysene deficient...)
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see what they come up with as a solution to the new non-indigenous toad problem. Will it be another mistake of the same type or will they attempt an artificial means to exterminate the toads? And wht of these toxins? Are they actually useful for anything? My guess is that they might be useful for making drugs... is this the same toxic toad that kids lick to get a trip on?
They just need to get a collection of "Crocodile-Dundee" types together and have themselves a toad-hunt and then a Bah-bee.
Or golf, depending on what is handy. I live on the Gold Coast and this place is rather infested with them during summer. It's almost become tradition to use them as golf/cricket balls. My brother managed to hit one around 100m down the road.
Now, I usually love animals. Green Tree Frogs, a cute little native frog, have almost become extinct in this area because of cane toads. Cane toads are one of the rare animals that I have absolutely no remorse in sadistically killing.
Tazmania is in Austalia, but exactly where?
it also reminds of a funny but embarassing story:
I was once talking to an Australian, and I asked about Tazmanian Devils (Thinking that they were some ficticious character invented by Warner Borthers for their cartoons). He goes off on how vicious they are to livestock and what a pain in the ass they are to get rid of. Here I am, the ignorant American, laughing my ass off, thinking that he's just running with the joke. Looking back, it now makes sense why he was looking at me funny - he was very polite, though.p/Doh!
Wouldn't those in the vanguard have longer legs because those with longer legs put them in the vanguard?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
since the toads are in Australia which as we all know is upside down why dont they fall off the planet when they jump?
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
The toxic mixture present in Bufo cane toads contains up to 15% 5-MeO-DMT, similar to one of the most powerful hallucinogenic substances known to man, DMT (endogenous to the humain brain). Would be psychedelic experimenters in Australia now have a vast source of smokable material extractable from the toad saliva with a pipette or turkey baster.
The high from the 5-methoxy version of DMT is not nearly as visual, but it's an incredible mindfuck. Check out Erowid for details.
This may cause hell for the environment there, but at least the Australians can get high.
This isn't recent. If you read the article the toads were imported in the 1940s to 1960s. They've been a problem for a very long time. I first heard of them in the 80s as a school kid. /. news about 40 years too late
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Our area (like most of the Queensland seaboard) is infested with cane toads. Believe me, I've seen some mighty big toads. About as big as they come.
And none of them were even as big as half a dinner plate - well I suppose it depends on what size dinner plate you eat from. Maybe the author eats from a 15cm dinner plate?
t
Just call in the french.
Toads are a pest here in Australia???
I hardly knew despite spending my youth cruelly launching them onto rooftops with golf clubs and continuing to encounter them hiking across pristine hinchenbrook island, throughout the rainforests of Far North Queensland and along the fringes of the Great Barrier Reef!
Next thing they'll be telling me Lincoln's dead and Hitler is a bad man!
The ecosystem is a tremendously delicate thing, and yes it will always balance itself out in the long run, but humans have to *really* be careful as they fell huge forests, import rabbits, toads, beetles, create nanotech, genetically engineer wildly and without thought to decided if they want this balance to be upset, and furthermore if they are prepared to allow this balance to shift toward... roaches... toads... cold hard industrialisation?
The last thing I heard was they were planning on importing some disease to kill off the rabbits in australia... Its ok though.. it only kills rabbits.
"I don't know why I swallowed a fly... maybe I'll die!"
I'd prefer cassowaries than sugarcane. (very few remain)
Rich Gentlemen Hide - The Existential Comic
"I am not, not licking toads"
back to our favorite show: THE HYPNO-TOAD
\u262D = \u5350
I don't know what it says about me that when I saw "4.5 pound toad" the first thing I thought of was "How far can it jump?" I need to move away from Calaveras.
Qxe4
are these the toads i hear about in australia that you can lick and get high?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
An exellent and extremely entertaining documentary about the cane toad invasion is known simply as "Cane Toads"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130529/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZn x0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHE9Y2FuZSB0b2FkfGZ0PTF8 bXg9MjB8bG09NTAwfGNvPTF8aHRtbD0xfG5tPTE_;fc=2;ft=2 2;fm=1
The article has a little bit of new info regarding leg length. However, the documentary makes paints these as creatures completely absurd. You have to be to reproduce that quickly.
Its so funny and bizzare that I didn't believe it was real.
Know what I like about atheists? I've yet to meet one that believes God is on their side.
Cane toads? I'd'a called 'em a 'chazwazzle'.
Did you ever notice that *nix doesn't even cover Linux?
Militants have taken over Russia! Calling themselves "Bolshivics" a group of Marxist seperatists, led by the charismatic "Lenin", recently siezed control of the city of Petrograd and fighting has spread to every other major city. Fighting in Moscow lasted about a week but has been relatively bloodless, not interrupting the opera or the ballet. Theaters, schools and government offices are still functioning but Bolshivic dominance of the Duma now seems assured.
How we know is more important than what we know.
What a gay attempt at FP'ing. +5 just because you can cut and paste? Give me a break. But these people are the ones who get the modpoints.
Good Sir, know that you speak of TripMasterMonkey, whose karma whoring has passed into legend, even on these most whore filled of boards.
May the Maths Be with you!
The toads must have washed ashore along with the camels and occasional wizards.
(Sorry, I just finished reading The Last Continent.)
Tazmania is an Island State to the south of Australia.
Proof by very large bribes. QED.
This is not news that there are toads Australia. The article is about the toads growing longer legs. Clearly not many people have actually read the article...
If consumed the toxin can cause one to hallucinate. Maybe these things do have a natural preditor, hippies!
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Toxic Toads Taste Terrific Tomorrow Today Time To Tie To Tang Tambourine Tazer..
I was going to read the article but I was blindsided by the topic. Sorry if I let you guys down.
In case anyone was wondering, this isn't the psychoactive toad that's been a pop culture reference. Various TV shows have had episodes about toad licking (though according to wikipedia licking can be deadly, you're supposed to smoke the venom). That toad is native to the US.
AccountKiller
Disco Stu says "Welcome toads".
If a toad has longer legs, even by 1% (assuming this is a reasonable variation in a population), it'll cover proportionately more ground. Thus, if toads were introduced in one location, and given that Australia is really quite large (especially if you're a toad), it seems obvious that in a few generations, the only toads that have moved a long way from their original introduction point are more likely to be longer legged. So, of course they're going to evolve longer legs.
What I want to know is, are they going to evolve airbags to combat toad golf...
Rabbits, toads, wild cats and dogs, even wild camels! A list of human "improvements" to Australian fauna can be seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species_in_A ustralia.
1's and 0's should be free.
Long time ago, in a galaxy, far, far, away, I was already fighting them Cane Toads.
http://www.aaaugh.com/jokes/cane_toad.html
English:
I, for one, welcome our new toxic toad overlords!
Toad:
ribbet, ribbet ribbt, ribbbit riibbite ribbit!
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
That is the price we pay for being "clever" human beings. I wonder why on one hand, countries like Australia advocate for leaving nature to take its toll while on the other hand, they mute out "clever solutions" to nature's "problems" in the eyes of humans.
Next, they are going to embark on an aggressive control or eradication program. Once in place, they will boast that it's the most extensive and most complicated program anywhere on the globe.
That is: -
1: Create the problem or create conditions enabling the problem to flourish, then
2: Find a solution to the problem, then
3: Boast that you have the best solution t such a problem. That is the west's mentality - sadly I must add.
So the toad has no natural predators in Australia? Here's the solution... just import whatever its predators are in Hawaii.
:)
Oh, and, so that we don't have this problem again, don't forget to import whatever their predators are (and so on). And, once we've had all of Hawaii's fauna displace the native ones, have Hawaii annex Australia... and rename it something like "Ulawakai'i".
- Joe
Butter's Sidekick: Simpsons Did It! Simpsons Did It!
Solution to this? Send Dick down there with a gun.
'Truth' is linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it...
Not to mention your dry lake beds.
None shall be spared, except maybe those who follow The Flying Spaghetti Monster.
P.S.: Please don't lick us. We're not psychoactive, just poisonous. And watching you ugly humans writhe on the ground in pain really puts a damper on our day.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Didnt' I see this on the Simpsons? Dam Bart.
From another epi but still funny
Skinner: Well, I was wrong. The lizards are a godsend.
Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Cane toads really need to evolve into something that can avoid cars, I ran over one last night...
Task Mangler
So the toad has no natural predators in Australia? Here's the solution... just import whatever its predators are in Hawaii.
...
An even better solution would be to:
Build A Giant Fence Across Australia To Stop the Toxic Toads!
Of course, if they can hop really high, it would be a really big fence, and then we could dislocate even more locals
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Dear Slashdot Welcome to 1978 .. this is news ?
Thanks
Australia
Last I'd heard nothing was eating these toads.
Nothing that is except a small population of Ravens that learned that if you flip the toads over, the bellys have no poison. As soon as one figured this out, others started to copy the behavior. Now ravens are disembowling these toads all over the place.
Now that is cool.
i'm not really interested in trying it, i'm just curious in the way i'm curious about the veracity of most urban legends
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Here's a cool documentary on the topic: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005JG6X/002-77 57987-7540014?v=glance&n=130
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
I am 35 years old and the cane toads here have been a problem as long as I can remember. I live in Queensland Australia where the cane toad is the biggest problem. I is kind of a state sport to see how many ways you can kill a cane toad when you are a kid here. Methods include golf clubs, cricket bats, air rifles, bow and arrow, home made flame throwers, shovels and any thing else you can imagine.
Wow. I can be really stupid. I hit preview and still managed to post something blatantly wrong.
s/frog/toad
Best,
Paul
I am an amateur herpetologist and have heard the bad-news stories of reptile deaths from eating Cane Toad (Giant Neotropical Toad, Bufo marinus) in northern Australia for some years.
Some populations are in great danger. The toads are toxic from the egg stage, and are eaten by native amphibians, reptiles, and mammals at all levels of the food chain. Because the native populations can't learn and pass on their new behaviours (to avoid the toads, because the ones who eat a toad normally die) there has been considerable reduction in some kinds of native animals who have been eating the toads. It has been reported that even the seemingly indestructable Saltwater Crocodiles have died after eating toads.
Because the cane toad 'escaped' into the environment, Australian scientists have been much more aware of the dangers and have studied subsequent releases of biological controls at very considerable depth before release. (I am aware of this from being peripherally connected to studies into release of several other biological controls by the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.)
Using a car to squash a Cane Toad that is on a road has been a sport in certain parts of Australia for many years. Many people in areas infested with cane toads (used to) consider a golf club, cricket bat, or shovel a suitable implement for toad control; they are probably a *little* more Politically Correct these days.
Looking at space, radio, science and computing from a 'down-under' amateur enthusiast perspective.
These are related to Bufo Alvarius aka The Psychedelic Toad of the Sonoran Desert.
But (unfortunately), the venom of Bufo Marinus does not seem to contain the strong hallucinogenic compound found in Bufo Alvarius (5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine aka 5-MeO-DMT).
While some have claimed that bufotenine does have a psychoactive effect, it is disputed, and I wouldn't try it. It definitely does have a cardiovascular effect, which can be dangerous.
See TOAD VENOM...THEIR TOXICITY & PSYCHOACTIVE EFFECTS.
So, I don't think I will go toad hunting to Australia. Good old psylocibin or LSD seem much safer...
Reminds me a lot of how those bees were imported from Africa and released by "mistake" on Brazil... Ah, the planet is being forced to change by humans again...
This sig can be distributed under the LGPL license
The damn cane toads are always in the news here.
The current huge argument is over whether it is human to beat them to death with Golf clubs.
Seriously, a NT minister suggested that golf clubs worked great, and lots of animal liberationists lost it, and suggested the only humane way was to put something on their back (can't remember what, put them in a plastic bag and then freeze them to death.
Hello people, this Toad is destroying our Native wildlife and you are worried about cruelty ????
lounge around on the blue couch
Wherein various new predators were introduced to control increasingly out of control predators. I think the final attempt used a 40 foot tall version of a domestic cat. I don't recall it turning out very well...
How's my programming? Call 1-800-DEV-NULL
Coming from Brisbane (capital of Queensland), I am referred to as a 'Cane Toad' as are all Queenslanders, a slightly better nickname than our southern brothers from New South Wales who have the 'Cockroaches' predicate, Victorians are known as 'VWs' (Victorian Wankers). There is only 1 known predator that can handle the Cane toad and that is the native Crow, it has learned (clever little buggar) to flick the toad on its back and go for the belly, thereby avoiding the poison glands on the back, I would be tempted to say 'Go the Crows', but I'm from Brisbane, not Adelaide ;)
You never catch me alive
Is it possible to get high off these toads? I thinking about moving to Australia now..
I saw somehting on Animal Planet the other day that showed common crows flipping the toads onto their backs and disembowling them and then eating up their yummy entrails! DELISH!
e ws/2004/05/31/wtoad31.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/n
"Some species are learning how to deal with the toads. "Crows have learned to flip them over and eat their bellies out, avoiding the poison glands," Dr Kennett said."
...to the toad problem. Bring in a predator that can eat them without dieing.
I'da called it a chazzwozzer!
I bet there's enough frogs there to feed the entire French army! See, there's a solution for every problem, you just have to think outside the box.
I for one welcome our dinner-plate sized, predator-killing overlords.
--- You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad- Neal (not Cowboy) Boortz
i heard that alot of peoples dogs wind up dead after eating the frogs also their crocidiles are even dying off after eating these toads, a predator so unchallenged that it hasnt had to evolve for .. what millions of years? is now dying off because it eats a bad toad ;)
But all is not lost! Us sport-obsessed Australians have developed numerous new past-times with these wonderful beasts! There's Cane Toad Golf, the time honoured past time of wandering fields with a driver and rather than wasting good golf balls, working on your swing and ridding a national pest at the same time! Cane Toad Cricket, very similar to golf, but with a cricket bat. Not quite as much fun. Then there's Cane Toad racing, which I think will be hugely benifited by the increase in leg size - however will this invalidate the old records set by shorter-legged toads of yore?
Sounds alot like the episode of the simpsons where they travel to australia... did the aussie government take this idea from them? :-p
"Last year, researchers announced they had successfully lured and trapped the toads using ultraviolet lights like those used in disco clubs."
If they're going to take over, lets not give them any ideas.
Wouldn't it be a good idea to encode genetic weaknesses into creatures you are going to spread in such an environment, so that you can get rid of them in case they cause too much trouble?
I am not sure about the exact implementation of this, but perhaps reducing resistability to some otherwise harmless disease, or increasing sensitivity to a type of poison...
Any biology experts to comment on the idea?
It's obviously a y2k problem, Slashdot got reset to 1906 at the beginning of the year and it's taking them a while to catch up.
Maybe when they get to 1982 they can slip Jobs a word about giving the Lisa a miss?
PS: that's "Bolshevik".
'Bufotoxin'... well I've never seen it called this way, in my part of the world (well, at least my perception of my part of my world where I used to 'live') it's rather called 'Bufotenine'.
Just google it and I'm sure you'll find you could be in for one helluva trip if you'd go to Australia...
(ever heard the term 'toad licking' well.. it's the same toad... and 'dinner plate' sounds like just the right size to me)
I didn't bother to read the article, but the crows here have recently worked out that they can flip the toads over to kill and eat them, and avoid any toxin. As a result, crows have moved from listed pest to protected species.
Bringing the toads over was more a political decision than a scientific one. The sugar industry was crying out for a magic bullet to solve their problem, and the toad was it. The toads failed to control the pest they were supposed to eradicate, and became a major pest themselves. When cane toads move into an area, the first thing that happens is that the native frog population plummets.
The toads are spreading annually and have recently arrived in Daintree, one of the last native frog habitats we have.
Predicably, our sugar industry is still a bunch of government-subsidised whingers, and no one has yet suggested they start helping pay to control this major pest they introduced.
There was an old lady who swalled a fly...
Sorry, I don't see any way out of this one. The toads cannot be touched, and folks will never stand for the only feasible option, which would be some sort of devastating toxic chemical or biological assault on them. Is Australia lost?
...although when they figure out how to dine on our entrails, we're in trouble. Those suckers are smarter than bears even.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
I think professionally they are called Politicians.
But in the true tradition of unusual animals in Australia, they are led by a spineless weasle, commonly known as Johnie.
Give it up! (Give up the toad now)
It's no joke, buddy!
Give it up! (Give up the toad now)
Or you'll croak, buddy!
Give it up! (Gotta give up the toad now)
And don't smoke,
Or you'll see - it hurts to pee.
ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNO-TOAD
What about all these Aussies now hunting down and chasing toads with pellet guns? That's an awful lot of exercise there mate. Why are there no reports of extra long legged Aussies now?
I hope, when they die, cartoon characters have to answer for their sins.
Yup, very bad title, since Cane Toads have been around for so long... but you all knew that already. I'm a PhD student studying evolutionary biology so I'd like to comment on the evolutionary aspects of the story. Specifically, the claim the that the long-leggedness of the toads on the forefront of the migration demonstrates evolution. This idea, of course, makes sense because legs are likely to help with dispersal. But, whether this will cause evolution or not depends on at least two factors: 1) Is leg length genetically controlled? If it's environmental, in that toads with better luck (i.e. found lots of juicy worms as a youngin') then leg length cannot be passed on so there's no evoution. I'll have to read the nature paper to find out what the authors said about this. 2) The long legged toads must have a disproportionate contribution to the gene pool of future generations. However, this story notes that the short legged toads start to arrive eventually. Interestingly, we actaully have some evidence to suggest that the long legged toads could have this advantage. In Estoup et al's 2004 paper in Evolution (Vol 58, Iss 9) it is shown that founders of new toad populations (possibly long legged toads?) actually have a very large contribution to the gene pool in comparison to later arrivals (the short legged toads?). This would make sense given that these early founders will be able to arrive early and breed often. Thus, they would gain a fitness advantage for being long legged. But, as far as the story goes we have none of this information.
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And then I get a button to click on saying 'I am at least 18 years of age' but nothing happens - presumably because I don't have cookies enabled.
So Google heroically resists US government pressure to turn over information, but caves to China's demand to censor its inhabitants - but then imposes its own censorship on US citizens? Unless, of course, we agree to be cookied and fill in forms for 'adult content'... for a Usenet post? I could go to alt.bizarre.kinky.sadomasochism.bork.bork.bork if I was five and/or read the *original* Usenet posting with no age authentication or cookies whatsoever but, now that Google 'owns' this, it's handled this way?
All of this could be completely barking up the wrong tree and there's a simple explanation and if so, great, but it sure seems damned bizarre to me.
Yes, I like your idea (Although the RSPCA is threatening anyone who participates in toad-golf with imprisonment), but I will point out that, in the area arround Kakadu, there are few people, and toads breed quickly. By the time toad number 1 lands, another few hundred reinforcements have just hopped out of the swamp.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
And this was all chronicled in the Simpsons episode "Bart vs. Australia".
SYSOP ('sih-sop) n.: the guy laughing at your typing.
Truer words were never spoken. Sadly, there is no "+1 Says It Like It Is" mod to give to you.
As the parent said, Hawaii is hit hard by foreign species, also. However, it's not just animals. Kauai's being overrun by foreign plants, which are out-competing indigenous plant life.
The word "evolved" was used to create the suggestion that genetic variation within a genus or species is the same thing as life springing from non-living matter, or a lifeform making dramatic jumps to 'outsmart' genetic error correction systems and thereby develop incredable new technologies via random flaws in DNA which result in totally different lifeforms.
It's like talking about your dog's puppies having "evolved" longer hair (or a louder bark) than their parents.
By associating two totally different things with the same word, you can create the illusion that both share the same flaws (or accuracy, depending on what ideas you are trying to spin). This is particularly effective in linking a non-controversial idea with a rabidly controversial one in order to create controversy for both (or depending on the desired goal, to do the opposite!)
One could do the same thing by:
- referring to birth control as "abortion"
- referring to global warming as "climate change"
- referring to imprisoned people you torture without trial as "illegal combatants"
- referring to the establishment of state sponsored religion as "faith based inititives"
Cane-toad Monitoring
So, basically, any four year old could have told them it was a bad idea at the time. Anyone want to trade governments?
Invisible to moderators.
...this particular ecological crisis has inspired a great video game.
Australia has a long history of screwing up their environment by introducing species. First there was sheep and cattle, which promptly overgrazed the slow-growing local vegetation. Then there were rabbits and foxes which have overrun the native ecosystem.
It's not that British settlers were any more tilted away from stewarship and toward exploitation in Australia than they were in other places. It's just that Australia, with its dry climate, can't rebound in a timely way from the white man's "business as usual" approach to ecosystems. Oops.
Marge: We have them in America. They're called bullfrogs.
Australian clerk: What? That's an odd name. I'd have called them "chazzwazzers".
Because usually when mankind gets involved and moves nature from place to place, the results are exellent!
I mean... Look at the lamprey in the great lakes, not to mention the zebra mussels.
Also in Michigan, we have these great lookalike lady bug things (I've heard them called both "Asian Beetles". and "Japanese Beetles"), which multiple by the thousands, and smell something fierce when killed. They supposebly were also imported to combat a native pests back in the 80's (aphids for one).
And don't forget about such wonders as the snakehead fish, and Africanized(sp?) bees (ie, "Killer Bee's")! Yesiree.. When man starts manipulating nature, it's truly a wonderful thing.
Has there ever been an example of bringing in a non-endemic species for a purpose and it not becoming a major problem? I feel bad for New Zealand, which does not have any native mammals (except for a couple bats) and so all niches were filled by diverse bird species, which are now suffering (several have gone extinct) from introduced cats, dogs, pigs, etc. Have we ever had a success in this? You'd think we'd learn by now.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Episode 2F13 Bart vs Australia
Homer: Oh. We left at 1:30pm Monday. What time is it now?
Lisa: It's 6:45am next Wednesday. You may also be interested to know
that it's summer here, not winter.
Homer: Oh! [throws his sled away]
Bart: What does that sign say? ["Advisory: foreign florae and faunae
prohibited!"] I thought they spoke English here!
Lisa: It says you can't bring in outside plants or animals. Any
foreign creature you bring in could upset the environmental
balance.
Bart: Oh. [removes toad from bag] Sorry, girl. I don't want to get
into any more trouble down here. I'll pick you up on the way
home. [puts it on the edge of a fountain]
-- Bart, ecosystem havoc-wreaker, "Bart vs. Australia"
How dare he steal karma by providing an informative post! Oh the humanity!
Don't use the word, "gay" to mean bad. That's so retarded.
How ya like dat?
The real problem with cane toads
Mirrored here, in case of DDOSing (32MB DivX avi).
"Apparatus dignosco occultus, satis non supernus."
There is a famous movie about this problem. Made in 1988, way to get the scoop /.
Our fellows might have their problems, but at least the're not Bush and Cheney!!
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
Reminds me of a hilar^W^W^W^W^Whorrid, deporable short film I saw a while back about one cane toad who's worried about his missing friend (who is also, coincidentally, a cane toad)...
Cane-Toad
always a crowd-pleaser!
One man's constant is another man's variable.
Cane Toads are making their way through the NT and totally ruining the native wildlife populations as they go. I remember reading somewhere that experts have estimated large tourist areas could be devastated in just a few years.
;)
The problem is that none of the native animals have seen a toad so they don't know not to eat them. Once they do, they die before they can pass on the bad news
...build a bridge from Australia to the rest of the world and let everything duke it out. And may the fittest species survive! It's not like this hasn't happened a million times before throughout the history of the earth. It would leave us with fitter species and provide lots of entertainment along the way.
"The White House is not an intelligence-gathering agency," -- Scott McClellan, Whitehouse spokesman.
Toads?
When I saw the subject line I immediately thought of BattleToads rampaging across Australia smashing thing with huge fists and feet.
Let's find out what eats those in Hawaii and introduce that in Australia.
As far as the long legs: they might be an advantage against predators in Australia (meaning the ones that can't jump as far get eaten first?)
"Piter, too, is dead."
Simpsons did it!!!
From TFA:
Toxic toads bound across the northern tropics of Australia faster than ever, thanks to the evolution of longer legs in the few short decades since humans introduced them to their own little paradise...Last year, researchers announced they had successfully lured and trapped the toads using ultraviolet lights like those used in disco clubs.
I guess those long legs are being put to good use. I'll bet that hallucinogenic stuff they secrete is a hit with the ladies on the dance floor.
For security, the MD5 hash of this message and sig is 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0.
When I first read the title I thought a rebel group of Toxic Toads armed themselves and took over the Australian government.
Called "Cane Toads"
It mostly played art houses, I saw it at the local college.
But it wasn't as special-effect-y as Jurassic Park.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Man I hate cane toads. They are ug-a-leee little mofos. They hide in the daytime and come out at night, so you go walking around in the grass and something moves nearby, and Yikes, it's one of those little buggers. They're big and squashy and creepy looking, like atom bomb mutants from a 50s sci-fi movie. And fearless. Stomp your feet at them and they hop toward you, not away, and I've heard that they bite. The up side is that they really aren't poisonous unless you try to eat one (which is why the predators don't fare too well), or possibly if you manage to touch one without getting bit and then you ate something without washing your hands.
Australian scientists have tried for decades to eradicate the toads, but with limited success. Last year, researchers announced they had successfully lured and trapped the toads using ultraviolet lights like those used in disco clubs.
Sounds like all they want to do is have sex and party. It's not their fault that they're mounstrous toxic beasts.
Wow, this is not news at all! I've read Cane toads have almost crossed from QLD to upper NT... Every night there are lots of cane toads outside my house, makes for a nice sound when you roll over them in the 4WD.
Don't use the word "Retarded" to mean bad. Thats so gay.
Fascism is the greatest political ideology ever conceived. Sorry.
What was news is that the cane toads are evolving, growing longer legs (mmmm froglegs) - why wasn't that mentioned in the lead?
Enlightenment is a pipe dream. So where's the pipe?
Darwin never came up with a "tree of life", that was Linnaeus and no one follows that anymore anyway. I think BobTheLawyer said it better than I could. If you want to see macroevolution in action, read The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner - very good book. Most biologists don't decouple micro- and macro- evolution, that might be an ID aspect in itself. There really is no difference, and yes, both can be seen. A toad will never turn into a walrus, no scientist will ever say it can.
No one ever said that evolution is easy - there's a reason why it's usually a 400 level class, and I recently took a class actually entitled Macroevolution that is graduate level. This stuff takes intense knowledge about both biology and geology, something I am just beginning, but most people who speak like macroevolution "doesn't add up" probably aren't studying the details. And like I said, the Cambrian Explosion might be taphonomic, rather than biological. It could have been more gradual than anyone thought. Studying the fossil record requires geology, not just biology, and taphonomic (preservational or depositional) bias is a big part of that. Also, there were plenty of critters around before the Cambrian explosion - the Burgess shale fauna for one, and shelly faunas after that. It wasn't as big of an explosion as we previously thought.
I saw this cool program many years ago on TV about the Cane toad problem. In one scene they showed a VW microbus heading towards the camera down this two lane rural road. Every so often the microbus would swerve and you'd hear a pop. Then they'd cut to an interview with someone. Then cut back to the microbus, more swerving, more popping. It's not till they get close you realize he's running over toads. They did indeed make a mighty satisfying pop. Then they eventually interviewed the driver of the VW microbus. He quite enjoyed running over the toads.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Did anyone else think "State of Origin" when they first read the title?.
Cane toads are also a problem in the Southern part of the USA. They caution you not to let your dawg eat them, since a good sized toad will kill a dawg. Or at least make it pretty damn sick. Whether it kills your dawg or just makes it hork up toad parts all over your livingroom carpet, that's not a good day. Solution? Genetically engineered mongoose! Problem solved!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Classic game... I guess they have never played it.
With a taste of your lips I'm on a ride You're toxic I'm slipping under With a taste of a poison paradise I'm addicted to you Don't you know that you're toxic And I love what you do Don't you know that you're toxic To any RIAA readers... Any overlap between my poem and the song of a trailer-trash starlet is purely coincidental.
From the NT News last year:
Kids smoking cane toads
`Children as young as 12 are licking cane toads in an attempt to get high, the Northern Territory News has learned.
Some juveniles and young adults in Katherine and Arnhem Land are even drying out the skins of cane toads and rolling them up as joints to get a hit.
But Territory health authorities have warned that those who lick or smoke cane toads are dicing with death and stress that there are no hallucinogenic effects possible from bufo toxin, the toxin excreted by the introduced pest.'
'Playing God 1.0' failed. Introducing a new species doesn't solve an environmental problem.
I suggest 'Playing God 2.0'. Let us genetically-engineer several of the native predator species to be toxin-resistant and perhaps also bacteria and viruses that will specifically target the toad. Nothing bad will come of this.
bzzzzzzzzzz
Power to the Penguin!
Homer: Hey, look! Those frogs are eating all their crops.
[everyone starts laughing]
Lisa: Well, that's what happens when you introduce foreign species into
an ecosystem that can't handle them.
Dick Cheney and a shotgun will solve the problem...
ID is right: evolution can't produce a new species. Evolution merely creates teeming biodiversity. It takes man to divide it up into species.
They're wrong to suggest speciation requires God's involvement, of course. Species can be created and destroyed without God, they are all the time.
There seems to be plenty of natural predators of these toads.
m
http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/canetoad.ht
"Predators of Cane Toad tadpoles in Australia include dragonfly nymphs, water beetles, Saw-shelled Turtles and Keelback Snakes. Keelbacks also eat young toads; laboratory tests have shown that they can tolerate low levels of toad toxins. Young or adult Cane Toads are eaten by wolf spiders, freshwater crayfish, Estuarine Crocodile, crows, White-faced Heron, kites, Bush Stone-curlew, Tawny Frogmouth, Water Rat and the Giant White-tailed Rat. Some predators eat only the toad's tongue, or attack its belly and eat only the mildly poisonous internal organs."
Also from this;
"Only about 0.5% of Cane Toad individuals that hatch from eggs survive to reach sexual maturity and reproduce."
It's best to let the nature deal with the 0.5% and give some time for the natural predators to neutralize the toads. It's under reported that these toads are consider NEUTRAL and not harmful pests as they are portrayed (typical over-reaction by media) because mainly they eat as much "pests" as they harm non-pests (whatever that means). The effects are over-shadowed by the human-factor ("the toad killed my dog/cat!" factor).
Lastly it contributes scientifically valuable data on evolutionary effect. It may be more valuable and important to let the nature take its course rather than outback Ausies make some holiday "wacking" these toads as some sort of past time out of this as far as the ecology of Australia is concerned.
I'm no biologist, but hell, I can see that nature is more resilient than we give it credit for.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
When smoked or ingested by a human (in small doses), it is a strong halucinagen...
Snakes in Queensland (where the toad was first introduced) have increased in length by 3-5% since the toad arrived. The theory is that the longer the snake, the greater the body mass, the better it can handle the toxin.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/enviro/EnviroRe publish_1250708.htm
I also remember reading somewhere about smaller heads in relation to body size thus limiting the size of the toad consumed and the amount of poison ingested.
just to back you up, check this out:
Ignorance is bliss
Germany and Japan have been defeated! The war is over! The allies have prevailed!
I grew up with these terrible toads in my backyard. That was in the early 70's and does not even come close to how long we have had these rotten toads.
BTW, they have also been known to kill crocodiles who eat them, due to the toads very powerful toxin. We urgently need something effective to use against the cane toad. They are killing off native species and are now invading our beautiful Daintree rainforest.
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
From TFA. ...Last year, researchers announced they had successfully lured and trapped the toads using ultraviolet lights like those used in disco clubs.
I can tell you this is really really old news, the CSIRO Australia's premier scientific research body has been focused on the control of foreign pests for many decades. Australia is a unique land, during the ice age (40,000 years ago) it was connected to asia since then it has been cut off from the rest of the world. It has many unique species of flora and fauna, most of which are almost completely defenceless to foreign species such as cane toads, foxes, pigs, rabbits, fire ants etc etc. It's the reason why we have such strict quarintine laws and customs inspections, and why many here go by the moto "If it's feral it's in peril".
We have first hand experience with the mongoose here in Jamaica as well. Three pairs were introduced a couple centuries ago to eradicate rats, but adaptable bastards that they are, the rats quickly found out that mongooses can't climb and took to the trees. The mongooses reverted to doing what they do very well, namely kill snakes and ground-nesting birds. The Jamaican Yellow Boa and Jamaican Green Boa are teetering on the edge of extinction thanks to the mongoose, and the Jamaican Iguana was thought to be extinct until a few years ago when a small breeding population was found on the coast near Kingston.
Island ecologies are particularly fragile, as Australia (rabbits), New Zealand (deer) and many others visited by Europeans have found out, but the most destructive of all introduced animals are the rat, cat, and pig. The National Geographic Society recently discovered the remains of a Jamaican monkey, the only species native to the island, that went extinct sometime after the arrival of the Spanish, probably due to hunting. Sad to say, the original native Jamaicans, the Taino, also went extinct after the arrival of the Spanish.
As a jab at the sometime tense North/South relationship during football season between Queensland (from where the plague originated) and New South Wales, one TV advertisement for beer recommend a posting at the border and a two wood as an effective means to return the little shits whence they came.
Unfortunately, only fraction of a percentage of the little buggers actually use highway one...
An interesting note is that the leather from these toads is a very popular material for hats in Australia. Oddly enough, the hats seem to run around $300 and up. Which I find odd since you can find other leathers for far less - you would think something considered a widespread pest would yield cheap leather.
That just struck me as odd, though I must say the leather is beatiful - and makes for a fantastic Crocadile Dundee style hat.
Too bad you gave up your right to firerams, toad shoots could be quite fun....
To get an insight into the life of a toad here in Oz, you have to see this movie d/l (30 meg).
http://www.cane-toad.com/movie.php
To get rid of the toads, just put up an article the Bufotoxin is Hallucinogenic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bufotoxin, and before you know it, the toads are gone! woowoowwwooweeeeeeee
Just vote them out of office.
And in case you were wondering what this saying means:
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhear.html
p.s. The more I learn the more brilliant The Simpsons becomes
Perhaps the government should loosen laws regarding varmit guns. Not a solution by itself, but maybe a new pastime for the Australian population.
As the article state, the cane toad was introduced to try to battle a particular type of beetle that was, at the time, eating the sugar crops in Queensland, in Australia's north-east. Unfortunately, they neglected to consider one particular aspect of the problem: cane toads live on the ground. The beetle in question lives at the top of the sugar cane.
Who else sees a bit of a disparity there?
Sure enough, the cane toad didn't do the job it was meant to. Whoops. But it gets better: having no natural predators, its population took off. Most creatures that tried to eat it were killed by the poison glands on its back.
It has been spreading slowly across the continent, and is now, I believe, as far west as Darwin. It won't be long before it hits Kakadu national park, which will be an absolute tragedy.
Having said all that, there are signs of hope: some local bird populations have learnt to flip the toads onto their back, and eat them from the belly, thereby avoiding the poison glands. Also, much of the population of Queensland is very adept with a nine iron, thanks to hours of practice with the local cane toad population.
It's here to stay; there's no way we can eradicate it from our shores. But at least our natives are learning to fight back; it's no longer as one sided as it used to be.
DAMN YOU, BART SIMPSON!!!
This sig is false.
So these things have a hallucinogenic effect unless you get too much and paralyze your heart, the trip kind-of stops there I'd imagine. Why not just tell Bush it's part of the war on drugs. America would spend millions hand over fist to get rid of these nefarious drug dealing animals.
I Am The Designer and I resent your public discussions of my "great noodly appendage"(sic) [it is properly titled "Great Noodly Appendage", thank you]. Only my wife and doctor are allowed that freedom of discussion.
A highly amusing (and award winning) film about the cane-toad can be found here
http://cane-toad.com/ - "What happened to Baz?"
I find it a strange coincidence that this morning I fished out 4 of these buggers having an orgy in my pond.... and then here I find on slashdot a cane toad story!
Toad: Roo Season!
Roo: Toad Season!
Toad: Roo Season!
Roo puts toad in pouch, hops away.
Bah! Doc Ruby can whore TripMasterMonkey into the ground on any day of the week.
to eliminate the toxic toads. Of course, then they would need to import razor fish to get rid of sponge monkeys ...
The editors are not very educated. Frankly, I think they need to spend a little more time in the "real world". I've submitted stories FAR more accurate and interesting to boot, and been ignored, only to find the same story published POORLY and inaccurately days later. The editors don't have a fucking clue. They couldn't find water if they fell out a boat.
/. that much? The extreme liberal socialist/communist rant from many of /.'s population. I just can't take it when they cry and complain about everything that sits slightly to the political right of Castro.
Communism/socialism and the included 50% tax rate, 25% unemployment rate, and 50% poverty rate are fond thoughts of many /. posters.
The other reason I don't read
and I for one welcome our new toxic toad overlords... and would like to remind them that as a trusted slashdot personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others, to toil in their underground sugar caves.
What a fag.
Oh, God! Please! That's REALLY not something that I needed to think about! Ewwww!!!
Hahaha. It's so funny to make fun of homosexuals. Now drop your pants and we'll see who's laughing.
(Damn the lameness filter!)
First, an introduction.
Cane Toads (Bufos Marinas?) are an obnoxious, brown, warty type of frog (OK, toad) that inhabit vast areas of Australia. Their introduction and proliferation in Australia is a classic example of ecology gone wrong. In the beginning, there were no cane toads in Australia. Sugar cane was introduced to its fair shores, along with the sugar cane came the cane beetle, a nasty, brown insect about 3/4 inch long.
"How do we stop the cane beetle," ask the scientists, "the little fuckers are eating all our sugar cane."
"Ahhh," says someone clever, "Why not look around the world to see what eats cane beetles, then introduce them into Australia and the problemo is solved!"
Wrong.
They found a natural predator in the cane toad, which came from Hawaii of all places. In 1935, 55 pairs (as in 110) cane toads were released in the small North Queensland town of Gordonvale. Unfortunately, Australia did not have any predators that liked to eat the toads, probably due to the poison glands on the back of their neck. Similarly, the cane toads found that there was much more interesting and tasty stuff to eat than boring old cane beetles.
The result was a plague of biblical proportions.
As a consequence, every man, woman and child living north of Sydney has grown up knowing the extreme pleasure of killing cane toads. Motorists swerve to hit them, cricketers hoist them for a six (equivalent of home run for you 'Merkins) over the boundary, weekend gardeners chase them down with a lawn mower.
The following, is some of the many varied ways I have dispatched these nasty little buggers while I lived in Queensland. Perhaps some other Aussies can add to the list, what about you Hawaiians out there?
THE THONG SLAP (TS)
The Thong Slap (TS) is not fatal to a cane toad, but is an important component of many of the other means of disposal. To perform a TS, one quickly removes their thong (rubber, sandal-like footwear) and slaps a toad hard on the head. This stuns the toad and stops it from hopping all over the place.
DEATH BY CLUBBING
#1) Take golf clubs out into the back yard, usually only a 2-wood, 6-iron and 9-iron. Find a toad and dispatch with club of your choice. If the toad is sitting upright, use the driver. Extra points are
awarded for lofted shots over the house and on to the street. Hitting a "slice" tends to result in separate pieces of toad.
#2) Take a field hockey stick and dispatch as above. Remember not to raise the head of the stick above shoulder height, otherwise a penalty may ensue.
#3) Using a cricket stump, first smash the toad with the blunt end, then reverse the stump and impale it with the pointed end. Shake the toad off the pointed end and repeat if necessary.
DEATH BY GARDEN TOOL
A special class devoted to common garden tools. Favorite tools are the shovel (hit with flat side, then chop up with blade), the mattock (chopping only), the pitch fork (see how many you can collect) and the
axe (slice and dice).
DEATH BY SPORTING EQUIPMENT
Another special class, covering those instruments not involved with clubbing. Some nice effects can be gained with tennis rackets (small toads only - great for perfecting that two-handed backhand), darts
(nothing like a moving bullseye) and football boots.
DEATH BY SLICING AND CHOPPING
#1) Take you mother's best carving knife outside and see if you *really* can throw it like a Bowie knife.
#2) After performing a TS, flip the toad over and use an Xacto knife to practice your vivisection techniques. See how much you can remove and still get the toad to hop away.
#3) Perform TS, throw toad into the air and try to hit with a machete. More points are awarded if the pieces are equal in size.
DEATH BY SQUASHING
#1) One of my all-time faves: Perform a TS, then throw the toad out onto a bust street. Bet with friends how many cars will miss it before it goes POP.
#2) Go to the local cricket field late
I'm dubious about the relevance of longer legs leading to them spreading further.
In my encounters with them, they've been decidely lazy critters, not moving an inch when you've unearthed them and proceed to pound them with rocks (the big ones need quite a pounding too!)
The most popular method for them spreading distance is to hitch hike a ride on a car or bike, hopping up into some space under the car while it is stopped and jumping out at some place later.
...on Isla Nublar with the Lysine Contingency. Didn't work out too well.
Then they can have the midwest, too.
I worked in a university research lab with these toads - they are fun to watch at feeding time, the way they aim at the mealworms was very robot like.
The 'Toxin' also has an 'LSD/Mushroom' effect. As in licking toads. Jokes were made of this on American_Dad and Simsons.
Just say _Toad_
Is this News? I saw a documentary on the proliferation of these pests five or six years ago. Is Slahdot going to report on the plague of rabbits Down Under next?
If we can only make these toads taste/look more like human babies...
There are toads the size of dinner plates taking over the country? Damn! I am going to pack my golf clubs and head down there to help out. Who's with me?
Customs should beware of visitors searching for frogs!
My wife doesn't listen to me either...
Interestingly, there is similar evidence that cane toads are as a whole increasing slightly in size, and simultaneously red-bellied black snakes have smaller mouths than they did 10-15 years ago. It seems that both species are adapting for the same purpose: the toads so that predators such as snakes can't swallow them, the snakes so that they can't swallow the toxic toads.
Emergence
"Just call in the french."
The whole point is that importing toxic frogs is a *bad* idea.
Toxic Toads Taking Over Australia
Posted by HueyLong on 11:32 Friday 8 March 1935
from the bad-sci-fi-radio-show-ideas dept.
News Science
Isaac Isaacs writes "Amphibian News is reporting that toxic toads ..."
I, for one, welcome our new toxic toad overlords! *ducks*
As opposed to using 'bad' to mean gay ? Isn't that a bit like, 'old-fashioned' huh ???
Similarly don't use 'old fashioned' to mean... zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Last year, the Australian New Inventors show featured a cane toad trap, which used a light to attract insects, which in turn attracted cane toads, which would jump onto the top of the trap and fall through trap doors. The trap won a competition with over 100 entries, sponsored by the NT government.
Isn't bufotoxin a hallucinogen.
Isn't this the toad that makes you trip upon licking it
Speciation has happened and being observed many times in plants and animals in our lifetimes
m l
A big list of documented and academic articles here, start at section 5.0 - Instances of Observered Speciation
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-speciation.ht
...welcome our bufotoxin-producing overlords.
In Hawaii they are using Citric Acid as a pesticide to kill the invasive coqui frog. Just spray the fields and PRESTO! They die. Perhaps this could help the Aussies. When life gives you lemons, make pesticide.
Remember... ZG9uJ3QgZm9yZ2V0IHRvIGRyaW5rIHlvdXIgb3ZhbHRpbmU=
There is one very clever semi-predator that is able to kill these toads: the crow. A few crows will show up in the field, and one brave one will come up from behind, grab it by the leg, and flip it on its back. Then the crows will run in and joust it in the stomach with their beaks. Clever animals!
I swear I've read about similar situations in other countries and regions that have tried messing importing a foreign predator and ended up with a bigger mess than before. Didn't they release a bunch of mosquitoes that were genetically engineered to be sterile to help curb the mosquito population in southern Florida and end up with flocks of "love bugs"? These schemes seem like a good idea on paper but messing with the eco system never seems to work out the way anyone intends, and not for the better...
Chris
Damn, I thought there was only supposed to be ONE intelligent designer. Now you are telling me there are many? This religious hoo-ha is more complicated than science, I am switching back.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Komodo dragons ...
Lions
Tigers (don't they need a place to live since India is all overpopulated anyway)
Wolves
Bears! They'll eat anything!
or maybe we can clone a T-rex from those DNA samples found. That would be freaking awesome!
"If you could only see what I've seen with your eyes..." - Roy Batty
The Cane Toads documentary linked above is one the most amazingly awesome documentaries out there. I HIGHLY recommend you watch it if you havent. Get some friends, beer or other mind-altering fun, and have at it. You wont regret it.
Cane toads are mildly notorious for their toxin's recreational psychedelic effects. Devotees literally lick a toad to get high. I wonder if vanguard toads have evolved better defenses in the form of more potent toxin?
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
this.
"BSD is about people pissing each other.." (Moid Vallat)
So, don't retard that bad word "mean" - the gay's used to.
Unfortunately, that ID website only considers their own misconstrued definition of reproductive isolation as evidence for speciation. Reproductive isolation doesn't mean animals that cannot interbreed if artificially inseminated - it has never meant that, even when first proposed. It defines species as those that do not freely interbreed with others, and this has nothing to do with genome. Some insects are reproductively isolated, and are considered as separate species, simply because the shape of the genital organs do not coincide, even though if artifically inseminated, yeah, they probably could produce viable offspring. Polar bears and Grizzly bears, if artifically inseminated, also produce viable offspring. But the question is - do they in nature? No. No one would say that Polar and Grizzly bears are the same species - they are morphologically very distinct.
Besides, that definition of speciation is also losing favor with many biologists, since it cannot be tested in the fossil record, and because of the polar bear/Grizzly bear phenomenon. One of the fundamental questions in biology is "what is a species?" and so far that has not really been answered by anyone, though many hypotheses, not just that of reproductive isolation, exist.
It's things like this that make me sure that IDers read an "intro to Evolution" textbook, or maybe even a middle school biology text, and then try to spread their knowledge. A lot has happened in this field since the Biological Species Definition was proposed (I believe over 50 years ago). This type of "evidence" is seriously outdated and is the reason why IDers have so far not been seen as scientists by the rest of us.
...now that I've wasted three karma points. About to be four. Suck my balls.
Which is exactly why they make fun of homosexuals.
n/t
------ The only greater hazard to your liberty than n politicians is n+1 politicians.
You can find it if you look, like at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005JG6X/103-45 08192-4394218?v=glance&n=130
You can't just fill in the holes of science with "God did it." No matter how much data we collect and how many hypotheses become theory, we will never have everything figured out, especially when dealing with fossils. Sticking God in anywhere only simplifies things, not explains things - it explains nothing because there is no physical evidence for God, and the absence of a perfectly transformational series of organisms does not negate evolution.
I also can't stress enough that the Cambrian Explosion probably took a lot longer than most paleontologists realize, and also that phyla (singular: phylum) are arbitrary. Looking back, we can see that the diversification was phylum-level, but at the time, how much divergence was there really between these guys? Not a hell of a lot - they were very similar, and quite unlike anything we have today. It was simply speciation, and now we recognize them as phyla only because nothing more different than them have shown up since. If all you had was an armadillo, a bat, an elephant, and a human, and nothing else, you wouldn't group them into the same class, certainly. But compared to all other organisms, they certainly are very closely related. Keep scale in mind.
The idea behind science isn't faith, it's evidence. No one says, or should say, "I believe in evolution," because it negates what we're trying to do. Yeah, scientists get their favorite hypotheses; we are human after all. But what we hypothesize is based on evidence, rather than the lack of it, which is what faith is based on. Not that I'm not a devout person myself, but there is a separation between the two. Faith helps us with many things, but will never explain how the world works. You can sit and think about the world all you want, or what God would or wouldn't have done (if you have that kind of hubris), but it is not science, and in the end explains nothing about how things work.
Look on the bright side... the next tornado to hit your trailer park will probably take care of your toad problem.
Simple, just introduce another species to kill off the cane toad. Rabbits, perhaps. Or kudzu. Or how about bird flu.
Can these things be converted to fuel?