"We've lost the cane toad war"

[MrBredli]

TERRITORIANS dutifully killing cane toads to stop their spread could be wasting their time, a new report says.

Report author Professor Tony Peacock, chief executive of the Invasive Animals Co-operative Research Centre at the
University of Canberra, says killing the toads is not stopping them.

"There is no evidence that physical removal of cane toads has slowed the invasion of toads towards Western
Australia," the report says.

"Toads have moved west at the same pace since community on-ground control began as before it, although the
biomass of toads at the front has no doubt been diminished.''

But FrogWatch NT co-ordinator Graeme Sawyer disputed the findings.

Mr Sawyer has just returned from the Great Cane Toad Muster at Bullo River Station and said the results of efforts to
stop the toad could already be seen.

"One of the things that's evident from the results of the muster is that there seems to be an entire age class of toad missing,'' he said.

Mr Sawyer said the Western Australian Government needed to do more to help stop the toad crossing the state border.

Prof Peacock wrote the report - Community on-ground cane toad control in the Kimberley - for the WA Government.

He predicts the cane toads could reach the WA border by next year.

"Toads now occupy a large proportion of the Victoria River District southwest of Darwin and are close to the Western Australian border,'' Prof Peacock says.

"At the current rate of spread, the toad invasion is likely to spread into Western Australia in 2008, 2009 or 2010.''

Prof Peacock believes the rate of spread will be determined by the length of the wet season.


http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2007/10/09/2288_ntnews.html

 

[Hetty]

no no no...

Rick Shine is on the case!

 

[MrBredli]

Yeah, but he's taking his sweet-ass time!

 

[Hetty]

It's a huge problem, so he needs a huge amount of time and money

 

[cris]

I hope we can stop them before they get to the pilbra. We should also be taking heaps of critters at risk from the toads and breeding them in captivity before the toads get there. Cane toads are one of the main reasons i decided to do ecology at uni.

It really sucks that organisations like wildlife warriors and the government cant be bothered putting some decent money into this instead of stupid crap like koala hospitals.

 

[moosenoose]

What a mess

 

[natrix]

What can one say , it's catastrophic.

 

[Charlie V]

My first thought is "A bounty would solve the problem". A $1 bounty per cane toad corpse would be a great incentive for people to actively start eradicating them. Folks could, for a short while, make very good money by culling the toads. At least a couple of hundred bucks a day.

My second thoughts were, "This would cost millions, possibly tens or hundreds of millions", and "This could have a devastating impact on native frog and toad species". I'm not sure how many cane toads people would be bringing in, but I'd be willing to bet it'd be heaps. And when money is involved, people start to get greedy and careless, and would quite possibly begin bashing anything that hopped and looked vaguely frog-like, and could seriously impact our already endangered native species.

My third thoughts were, "The government has plenty of cash to blow", and "The native species are already in peril". The government wastes a pile-load of cash on stupid things like car detailing, updating new cars, travel expenses and facility upgrades. They could easily scrape together the cash without taking from other, actually important expenses. I know it's ridiculously naive to expect politicians to forgo their perks in favour of controlling cane toads, but a man can dream right? And while it would very likely result in lots of native specimens being killed, I think it is a case of tough love, where the reduction in cane toads would have a net benefit, even though we ourselves would be killing more native frogs and toads.

At any rate, I think a bounty is an idea with merit that should be seriously debated as a control method.

 

[Strange1]

Easy Charlie V, just have a minimum size limit of 5cm or so, that would reduce the number of natives affected. Or have a penalty for bringing in the wrong species...
Either way there was a guy talking about giving a case of beer per 24 toads that u handed over!
I might just start that Cane toad breding program in my bath tub....

 

[Charlie V]

Easy Charlie V, just have a minimum size limit of 5cm or so, that would reduce the number of natives affected. Or have a penalty for bringing in the wrong species...

Yeah, but that won't stop them being killed, just from being handed in. I don't imagine many people would be deliberately killing natives, rather just getting caught up in the heat of the moment and not checking their targets before they deploy their golf clubs...

 

[JasonL]

It's too late, It was too late once they released them years ago. You Sand Groupers will be having Cane Toad races at every second Pub within 10 years.

 

[Colin]

Who was actually responsible for bringing them into the country in the first place? Whatever government organisation it was, maybe they should spend some serious man hours and money looking to a way to solve this problem they caused.

 

[slim6y]

It's one step forward and two steps back imo.

There's all these studies saying this and then there's all these studies saying that... There almost appears to be toad sympathisers - perhaps the toads have got into media and government. Afterall, they do seem to be running the country.

Tho - the good news, i heard on Triple J that there's a euthanising 'spray' being devoloped to kill the toad easily.

I know little about the spray, and only heard about it on one news cast on the radio...Will look it up now.

But yes - fruitless removal of the toads appears to do little... however, remember the butterfly effect - each female with up to 50 000 eggs - one of those eggs may hatch and kill a native frog, snake, bird, mammal etc...

So - don't stop the seemingly fruitless removal, start doubling your efforts!

PS - Don't forget to remove your toad from the food chain by wrapping in plastic bag and disposing in rubbish bin - this stops other animals feasting on a poisonous toad! Whacking and killing only does half the job - disposal completes!

 

[caustichumor]

Even though it doesn't have much of an impact in the greater scale of things, I'll still whack away at those toads that cross my path, (and so I don't upset the tree huggers, by whack away I mean humanely euthenise with a series of lethal injections) it might not stop the spread but it will mean 1 less toad in my yard!

 

[Colin]

But yes - fruitless removal of the toads appears to do little... however, remember the butterfly effect - each female with up to 50 000 eggs - one of those eggs may hatch and kill a native frog, snake, bird, mammal etc...

So - don't stop the seemingly fruitless removal, start doubling your efforts!

start doubling your efforts

especially killing the breeding females

 

[MoreliaMatt]

Even though it doesn't have much of an impact in the greater scale of things, I'll still whack away at those toads that cross my path, (and so I don't upset the tree huggers, by whack away I mean humanely euthenise with a series of lethal injections) it might not stop the spread but it will mean 1 less toad in my yard!

truck batteries and jumperleads are good for humanely euthanising cane toads!

 

[cris]

Bounties are stupid and counterproductive, do a search and you will find it has been brought up countless times before.

Killing individual toads can be very effective in controlling very small areas, for the last 5-7 years i have virtually prevented toads from breeding in my immediate area, simply by killing any adults that come into the area. I suspect controlling them has had a considerable positive impact on the local wildlife as there are heaps of frogs and snakes around and the only toads are the adults coming in from other areas, as soon as they croak i usually go and smash them.

Outside the cites more intellegent solutions need to be found as killing a few (1-1000etc.) generally wont make ANY differance at all.

The best and most humane way to kill them is a very hard blow to the head, This can be done with a suitable stick bashing downwards or by grabbing the back feet and wacking them on a hard surface as you would a rat. Shooting them also works well, but generally killing them in areas where guns can be used will be a waste of time. Care needs to be taken not to cause the poison to spray in your eye because apparently its bad(never tried it myself). I would be careful using the battery method mentioned above as i would imagine you would get coated in poison and toad guts :?

 

[JasonL]

Who was actually responsible for bringing them into the country in the first place? Whatever government organisation it was, maybe they should spend some serious man hours and money looking to a way to solve this problem they caused.

A bloke by the name of Reginald Mungomery collected 102 toads from Hawaii for the cane Industry, under instructions of the Queensland Government, 1 June 1935, they were put into a breeding pond at Meringa (near Cairns). Within 1 year 41800 toads were released.

 

[Khagan]

Dont get toads here, but i remember them from when i lived up Tweed Heads. Dad use to play golf with them and smack them cross the road into neighbours yard XD i tried squashing one with a brick and it didnt even do anything O_O saved a big green frog from one and ran over many babies on my bike. They are ugly destructive buggers, why where they introduced in the 1st place? Youd think if they bred 41800 in 1 year theyd think "Hey.. if they breed this easy and fast there might be a problem!".

 

[cris]

They were introduced to eat cane beetles on cane farms, hence the name cane toad. Just like mosquito fish were introduced to control mozzies. I would be suprised if they thought about or even cared about the potential ecological impact at the time.