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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
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
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!
Rabbits, toads, etc. Why is it always Australia that has these problems?
:-)
Because Tokyo finally learned to cover these things up
G.
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.
I can't wait to hear about World War 2 beginning in 4 years time.
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.
Probably because the local flora and fauna that has been seperated from the rest of the world for so long that it can't compete with every critter/plant that some moron brings in from somewhere else. Though there are certainly plenty of other critters introduced elsewhere that cause problems like this.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
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
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.
Just call in the french.
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
managed to hit one around 100m down the road
so that's how they've tricked you all into helping them to spread at 60km/year instead of the expected 10km/year.
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!
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...
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.
Not an Aussie, but as I understand it, these are the toads that you can lick and get a sore throat.
However, Australians have been known to take this species of frog, kill it, dry the skin, and smoke it. This will get you high. See previous anonymous poster's link to erowid.
Best,
Paul
The Hawaiian islands gets hit almost as badly as Australia. Sometimes it's accidental introduction -- there's a frog species overrunning some areas and causing serious noise pollution with their croaking -- and sometimes it's deliberate but misguided. People introduced the mongoose to control the rat population. Not only did they not take care of the rats (they forgot to take into account different nesting habits and day/night cycle), but they proceeded to infest the islands themselves.
Like Australia, Hawaii is geographically isolated. Species thrive without competition, but when a more competitive species arrives, it has an easy time taking over.
On the other hand, Australia has been isolated for a lot longer than Hawaii has existed, so while Hawaii is populated by successive waves of immigrating species going back thousands of years, Australia's got millions of years' worth of native species that haven't had to deal much with foreigners until a few hundred years ago.
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
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
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?
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.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
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?
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.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Don't use the word, "gay" to mean bad. That's so retarded.
How ya like dat?
I was impersonating a Slashdot story, spelling mistakes are a requirement.
How we know is more important than what we know.
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.
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.
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.
As a local to the region the Cane Toads were introduced (Cairns) I can assure you the Daintree has had them for decades. The Daintree is only about 120 miles north of Cairns and I can remember as a child back in the 70's seeing them at Cape Tribulation (another 40 miles north of Daintree).
... the humane way, and the FUN way.
You may be thinking of Darwin about 2000 miles west of Cairns which has only just started getting them in the last few months.
There are 2 ways to kill cane toads
The humane way involves bagging then freezing them. Which many dont like doing for obvious reasons.
The fun way involves either playing chicken with them on the roads (the toads rarely win against most cars, however those smaller buzzboxes may flip at high speeds). On some the main highway there can be "splatters" of toads as close as a metre appart, and on a 15mi stretch of road thats ALOT of toads and the smell when the sun comes out to dry them is spectacular.
The other fun way if you have nasty neighbors involves practicing your golf swing by slicing them up onto your neighbors roof. Be warned however, beurocracy and stupidity have once again reared their heads with the RSPCA (like the ASPCA of the US) is calling for maximum penalties against those found inhumanely treating toads (golf clubs, etc) this carries a maximum $100,000 penalty IIRC.
It will be impossible to eradicate the Cane Toads except through a biological means (virus/bacteria genetically targetting them) as their population is beyond comprehension. At any one time during a downpour there could be up to 50 toads in one yard, there are over 100,000 yards in Cairns alone (say 40 sq mi area) and that doesnt include the "bush" which easily covers the whole area of Queensland (about 666,000sq mi) and on into Northern Territory. So you can easily see that they could easily number into the tens or hundreds of millions.
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."
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.
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".
(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
...on Isla Nublar with the Lysine Contingency. Didn't work out too well.