Ugly toxic cane toads continue WA spread

[saintanger]

What about areas that toads exist yet people don't live? How would people be able to kill them or even make a difference then? The most fragile areas that toads do/will affect are the areas that very small populations of humans inhabit (The Kimberley, etc). I was just recently in Western Australia and toads were nearly all the way across to Fitzroy Crossing (if you look on a map that's a long way across the top of WA). They are very thick on the ground from Kununurra down to Halls Creek.
There are still no species that have become extinct because of Toads in Australia, there is also a huge risk of many frog species (Mixophyes, etc) being slaughtered just because they resemble toads a little bit.

never said there are species that are extinct because of them but who are becoming. areas were toads exist and humans don't, well i am sure we have enough humans in australia who can go out there and kill them.

its seems to me peoples attitudes are we should do nothing and just sit around.

 

[Dendrobates]

never said there are species that are extinct because of them but who are becoming. areas were toads exist and humans don't, well i am sure we have enough humans in australia who can go out there and kill them.

its seems to me peoples attitudes are we should do nothing and just sit around.

I wasn't referring to your comment, merely stating a fact. Cats will send native species extinct well before toads ever do. You obviously haven't seen these areas where toads exist but humans don't? These areas are pretty much inaccessible due to the landscape and other factors. The toads are using water sources across the top of WA to slowly make their way west, it's amazing to go the Eastern Kimberley one year and see no toads and then go again a second time a year later and the ground is littered with toads!

That is not the attitude that people have, some people are just realists that look at the bigger picture... you can't just go out and kill all the toads, even killing half the toads will make no difference, it only takes one female to drop another 30,000 babies and the numbers are huge again. There is much more to it then 'the toads are killing everything', more study needs to be done into that.. for example why are Mulga Snakes such a rarity now in the Top End due to toads, but in the Surat Basin Mulgas are in huge numbers but also live right along side cane toads with no ill-effects that we know of?

 

[bohdi13]

suggestion; kill'a toad day :lol:

winner gets $1000 haha...

something that has already been said,if 1/4 - 2/4 of australias population (current population roughly 22 million) killed a toad or two there would be a dramatic decline. i tell you what! next time up north i am going toad hunting most nights...

 

[mcloughlin2]

I'm not an expert by any means and accept the sad reality that at this stage we can't stop them in their tracks. However I agree on a local level cane toads should be able to be controled. This local area may only be someones 5 acre block of land. It wont stop them completely but clearing a few blocks of land of majority of the toads may reduce the rate of spread until we figure something out. Even if it doesn't work and that theory is bull what's the worse that will happen? A very very small chance a native species is mistakenly identified as a cane toad.

While on a widespread level we have not yet managed to control feral species such as rabbits/foxes/pigs/goats I can name several locations which have seen these animals wiped out (or almost exterminated) due to hunting (in some cases a single hunter on a block of land tens of thousands of acres). Yes cane toads are a different species due to fast reproduction but it can't hurt to kill whatever you can get too.