wattso
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New articles~ Snakes and cane toads!
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Slateman
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I hate toads
Just out of curiosity, has anyone looked into infecting the toads with a blood born disease? (ie: similar to AIDS disease) Obviously as they are now so wide spread, chances are any snakes who ate an infected toad would get the disease as well but if we could have looked at it when they were first introduced it could have been a way to eradicate the problem.
Problem is that we continually introduce one preditorial species to control another (ie. the toads were introduced to control the cane beetle) and we cant predict what will happen once a certain food source has be decimated, obviously another needs to take its place and unfortunatly in this case, it happens to be the same food source that snakes also use. The Top End snakes are really getting a raw deal because not only is their food source being reduced dramatically but as the cane toads are so toxic, once they get eaten, the snake also dies from the poison.
I shudder to think what will be introduced to try and control the Cane toads.
Problem is that we continually introduce one preditorial species to control another (ie. the toads were introduced to control the cane beetle) and we cant predict what will happen once a certain food source has be decimated, obviously another needs to take its place and unfortunatly in this case, it happens to be the same food source that snakes also use. The Top End snakes are really getting a raw deal because not only is their food source being reduced dramatically but as the cane toads are so toxic, once they get eaten, the snake also dies from the poison.
I shudder to think what will be introduced to try and control the Cane toads.
Lunar_Psycho
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What measures are currently in place for cain toad control and eradication Australia wide?
Cheers, Jay
Cheers, Jay
Scientists at the CSIRO Animal Health Laboratory in Victoria have been searching for biological controls of Cane Toads and in 2001 they began investigating gene technology as a mechanism of control. Scientists at the University of Adelaide have isolated a sex pheromone in a native Australian frog; they hope that a similar pheromone will be found in Cane Toads and that it could be used to disrupt their breeding cycle.
The main controls on the spread of Cane Toads in southern Australia are quarantine checks and public awareness and response. One publicity campaign on the north coast of New South Wales resulted in 100 people collecting more than 900 Cane Toads. Toads can be excluded from garden ponds and dams by a 50 cm high barrier such as an thick hedge or a wire mesh fence.
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.
http://www.austmus.gov.au/factsheets/canetoad.htm
The main controls on the spread of Cane Toads in southern Australia are quarantine checks and public awareness and response. One publicity campaign on the north coast of New South Wales resulted in 100 people collecting more than 900 Cane Toads. Toads can be excluded from garden ponds and dams by a 50 cm high barrier such as an thick hedge or a wire mesh fence.
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.
http://www.austmus.gov.au/factsheets/canetoad.htm
Cane Toads eat almost anything they can swallow, including pet food, carrion and household scraps, but most of their food is living insects. Beetles, honey bees, ants, winged termites, crickets and bugs are eaten in abundance. Marine snails, smaller toads and native frogs, small snakes, and small mammals are occasionally eaten by Cane Toads.
from the above website as well
from the above website as well
Lunar_Psycho
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Is it true that if you find cane toads your supposed to kill them yourself if your incapable of taking them somewhere else for destruction?
saikrett
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how stupids were the people that introduced them. How is something that can't fly going to iraticate a flying beatle? Someone needs to think before they act.
Lunar_Psycho
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They were desperate for a solution to the cain beetles, and as far as they knew the toads were going to eat the stupid things. Its just a plan that back fired. With that said I still say destroy the toads :twisted:
a female can lay over 35 000 eggs in one season and can lay twice every year. Once the eggs are laid, tadpoles hatch between 24-38 hours later and tadpole stage only lasts on average 12 weeks (depending on food supply, climate etc.) These tadpoles can start breeding at 1 year of age. To simply go out with a shovel, although tempting and a good way to relieve stress, is not going to be very effective.
Does anyone know if they are A-sexual? All that I have read talks of a male and a female. What if there was a way of injecting a certain something into the toads which made them steryle and that could be passed on come breeding season?
Does anyone know if they are A-sexual? All that I have read talks of a male and a female. What if there was a way of injecting a certain something into the toads which made them steryle and that could be passed on come breeding season?
Lunar_Psycho
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Thats a LOT of toads :shock:
Cain toads were originally introduced to eat cane beetles, but instead they went after native animals. If a virus, etc. were introduced into the cain toad population, theres a chance that it could eventually evolve and be passed onto native amphibians or to other animals. This is the same issue Australia was faced with before introducing the cain toad in the first place, attempt to slowly erradicate the current problem or risk introducing something foreign aimed at the current problem and hope for the best.
Years from now people might be talking about the horrible virus that wiped out a lot of animal species in Australia, and verbally abuse the idiots that released it (just like were doing now with the toads).
Cain toads were originally introduced to eat cane beetles, but instead they went after native animals. If a virus, etc. were introduced into the cain toad population, theres a chance that it could eventually evolve and be passed onto native amphibians or to other animals. This is the same issue Australia was faced with before introducing the cain toad in the first place, attempt to slowly erradicate the current problem or risk introducing something foreign aimed at the current problem and hope for the best.
Years from now people might be talking about the horrible virus that wiped out a lot of animal species in Australia, and verbally abuse the idiots that released it (just like were doing now with the toads).
saikrett
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i guess theres not much we can do
wattso
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Thats more like it, intresting stuff.
Amy, you said~
What if there was a way of injecting a certain something into the toads which made them steryle and that could be passed on come breeding season?
How would it be passed on if they were sterile?
Also~
Just out of curiosity, has anyone looked into infecting the toads with a blood born disease? (ie: similar to AIDS disease) Obviously as they are now so wide spread, chances are any snakes who ate an infected toad would get the disease as well but if we could have looked at it when they were first introduced it could have been a way to eradicate the problem.
Snakes that eat them die, well befor the disease could take hold.
These are better ideas than some though. I think we need some way of biologically weakening the eggs, make them prone to failure somehow, would slow the population down enough to try other methods. perhaps a genetic tweak to cause egg defomaties resulting in a high percentage of mortality befor reaching tadpole stage.?
Amy, you said~
What if there was a way of injecting a certain something into the toads which made them steryle and that could be passed on come breeding season?
How would it be passed on if they were sterile?
Also~
Just out of curiosity, has anyone looked into infecting the toads with a blood born disease? (ie: similar to AIDS disease) Obviously as they are now so wide spread, chances are any snakes who ate an infected toad would get the disease as well but if we could have looked at it when they were first introduced it could have been a way to eradicate the problem.
Snakes that eat them die, well befor the disease could take hold.
These are better ideas than some though. I think we need some way of biologically weakening the eggs, make them prone to failure somehow, would slow the population down enough to try other methods. perhaps a genetic tweak to cause egg defomaties resulting in a high percentage of mortality befor reaching tadpole stage.?
Lunar_Psycho
Active Member
I think what Amy meant by "passing the virus on come breeding season" is not that it would be passed on through conception, but rather it would be passed to other cane toads when they gathered to mate.
I still believe that if it were possible to weakon cane toad eggs by some biological means, that theres a chance it could affect the whole amphibian population of the area its released into. If anything biological were to be used I believe it should be something to identify cane toads, their eggs, and their locations, without risking harm to existing animal populations aswell. Perhaps introducing something into the gene pool that would allow cane toads to be registered on some sort of high chemical or unusual visual frequency which allows for the toads to be detected using technological equipment, but which cannot be detected by other animals.
Also, does anyone know of any animal(s) whose diet solely consists of Cane Toads? Not suggesting they be introduced (weve seen the results of that so far), just curious.
Cheers, Jay
I still believe that if it were possible to weakon cane toad eggs by some biological means, that theres a chance it could affect the whole amphibian population of the area its released into. If anything biological were to be used I believe it should be something to identify cane toads, their eggs, and their locations, without risking harm to existing animal populations aswell. Perhaps introducing something into the gene pool that would allow cane toads to be registered on some sort of high chemical or unusual visual frequency which allows for the toads to be detected using technological equipment, but which cannot be detected by other animals.
Also, does anyone know of any animal(s) whose diet solely consists of Cane Toads? Not suggesting they be introduced (weve seen the results of that so far), just curious.
Cheers, Jay
Wattso, very true, I didn't write very clearly. What I was meant to say is that what if we could possibly make it so that only the tadpoles once hatched were sterile? The adult toads would still breed and although a very long term project, eventually all the adult toads would die out. And all the younger ones wouldn't be able to reproduce? This would only work if Cane Toads are not
A-sexual.
As for my disease idea. I agree, it wouldn't work fast enough to become effective and even then, would kill more than just the Cane toads.
As far as making eggs prone to failure, this could only be effective if there was a high mortality rate and for that to happen enough toads would have to be affected. And enough generations born with this genetic "tweak".
One thing that is very obvious here, it is a whole lot easier to put holes in peoples theories than come up with even one that doesn't have a huge risk factor or possibility of back fire. Now I know what the scientists faced when they were looking at erradicating the Cane beetle. It seems to me that we have to accept that nothing will be perfect and that there is always a high chance of fallout. We simply have to find that which has the least effect on our native environment and accept the consequences that will come from introducing a non-native species into such a isolated and unique environment such as our own.
Jay, as far as I know, there isn't any specific non-introduced animal that feeds solely on Cane toads for the main reason that they are so high in toxicity. A diet solely consisting of Cane Toad would kill very quickly.
A-sexual.
As for my disease idea. I agree, it wouldn't work fast enough to become effective and even then, would kill more than just the Cane toads.
As far as making eggs prone to failure, this could only be effective if there was a high mortality rate and for that to happen enough toads would have to be affected. And enough generations born with this genetic "tweak".
One thing that is very obvious here, it is a whole lot easier to put holes in peoples theories than come up with even one that doesn't have a huge risk factor or possibility of back fire. Now I know what the scientists faced when they were looking at erradicating the Cane beetle. It seems to me that we have to accept that nothing will be perfect and that there is always a high chance of fallout. We simply have to find that which has the least effect on our native environment and accept the consequences that will come from introducing a non-native species into such a isolated and unique environment such as our own.
Jay, as far as I know, there isn't any specific non-introduced animal that feeds solely on Cane toads for the main reason that they are so high in toxicity. A diet solely consisting of Cane Toad would kill very quickly.
wattso
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How about introducing massive numbers of keelbacks[oz native] to areas where the toads are highest in number? keelbacks apparently can eat them without ill effect [if memory serves me, though i may be wrong] these could be wild caught, although some might argue this would upset the keelback gene pool, disturb habitats etc etc. but any native[to us]animal would be better than introducing another exotic.????????????????????????
http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/canetoad.htm
According to the above site yabbies are predators to cane toad eggs/tadpoles, I wonder if releasing these in canetoad breeding waters might work in large numbers? i dont see what harm that could do!
http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/canetoad.htm
According to the above site yabbies are predators to cane toad eggs/tadpoles, I wonder if releasing these in canetoad breeding waters might work in large numbers? i dont see what harm that could do!
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