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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.'"
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"
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!
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
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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
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
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.
I'da called it a chazzwozzer!
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.
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?