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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.'"
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
I first lernt about this from the simpsons
Homer: Hey, look! Those frogs are eating all their crops.
from Bart vs. Australia
When all else fails, try.
No. Not really.
Nearly no intelligent designer writes off evolution. They write off evolution being able to produce entirely new species altogether.
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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
Actually, several native species are beginning to target the Cane Toad.
Ric Nattrass, in his Wildlife Talkback radio segment (search on abc.net.au for more), often recieves reports about various birds and other animals beginning to eat toads.
Personally, we have native White-Tailed Rats that catch toads in our pond, and eat their insides, leaving a neatly-cleaned skin and skeletal parts behind.
So, although all is not lost, it takes some time, and many species are wiped out before they work out either how to eat them or to leave them alone. When they reach Kakadoo, it is going to be a disaster, but no one has any way to prevent it.
Prediction for end of Universe #42: Fencepost error in Quantum_bogosort.cpp
Indeed, it's not like Australia has a shortage of lethal animals. In practice its largely because Australia has been fairly successfully isolated for a long time and the flora and fauna smply aren't adapted to deal with the introduced species. You'll find exactly the same sorts of problems in New Zealand, and, in fact, in the US if you introduce the wrong species.
Jedidiah.
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Sounds good, but these things are *tough*
I've seen one hit with a golf club, fly a fair distance and smack into a tree only to crawl off. They have been run over by cars and survived.
A whacking day won't kill them. A *chopping* day might.
For those interested in what this article claimed to be about (from the post), might I suggest a few people with a sense of humor, a case of beer, and this.
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. - Albert Einstein
(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