Cane Toads...
…Are the devil incarnate.
I have known about these things for years but never met them before last week
and they seriously suck ass.
The thing that bugs me is
that this is such a bloody typical example of humans (sorry mum) fucking up
once again because we just didn't think.
They are originally from
South and Central America, and get along very happily over there. Back in the 30s
farmers in Queensland, Australia were having huge issues with a cane beetle
which were destroying their crops, so some bright spark suggested they brought
in cane toads to eat the cane beetle. So without so much as a second thought on
the matter they shipped over 102 toads and distributed them amongst a few farms
in the Cairns area.
The problem is that cane
toads don’t eat cane beetles or their larvae as intended. But they do eat
practically everything else. They’re generalist feeders which basically means
they aren’t fussy, so they eat almost anything they can swallow. This includes
beetles, bees, ants, termites, or any living insects, but also can include pet
food, carrion or small rodents. The significance of this is that they’re not
like specialist feeders (such as koalas) who are restricted to live in only one
environment. Instead they are free to migrate as they wish as long as there is
a basic food source, and this is a huge contributor to their success in Australia.
It also means they often out-compete other native feeders who share a similar
habitat.
In addition to this, they
are practically indestructible. They have poison glands behind their ears which
are toxic to most potential predators who are not familiar with this invasive
species. Their tadpoles are also highly toxic which means they have very few
predators, and to add insult to injury, they are also cannibalistic, in that
they often eat tadpoles of other toads and frogs if found in the same
environment.
We were also told by a local the other day that apparently you can
freeze cane toads for a short while, and then when defrosted they come back to
life, however the biologist in me smells a rat with this one (or at least a
rather stinky toad). That said, if you speak to any local Ozzie, apparently a
good boot in the head or a swift smack of a spade on their head will do the
trick.
All of this as you can
imagine has significant ecological repercussions for native species….If they
aren’t out-competing them for food or space, they’re poisoning them (fresh
water crocs and turtles are among those affected in this way), if they aren’t
poisoning them they’re eating their young…it’s having a severe effect on the biodiversity
across Australia and there’s not much we can do about it as no strategy yet
employed has been successful. Like I said, they suck.
Bro and I first saw cane toads
in Noosa in the everglades…not live ones but we saw about 5 dead ones on the
track leading away from the campsite. If there are 5 fresh dead ones, you can
guess how many live ones there are sneaking around.
At the farmstay we were
chatting to the owner who said that each evening at around dusk, 20-or-so hop
past the farmhouse. Their trick is to spray Dettol on them which apparently is
rather effective, but the issue is how to dispose of them without leaving them
for other animals to eat.
And then finally, on our
first evening in the Daintree we see our first live one in the headlights of
the car. It was bloody huge!!
There are now over 2
million cane toads in Australia. 2 MILLION. That’s a lot.
I wrote a blog about all
of the invasive species in NZ but never posted it as I felt a little preachy
and moany, but I think it’s worth telling people about these things. I know
there’s not much people can do from their homes in the UK (unless you want to
book some long-haul flights and join in the cane toad bashing events they
apparently have over here!), but we can definitely raise awareness over this
kind of issue and collectively work together to avoid this kind of situation
happening again. We are LOADS better at avoiding this kind of situation now and
it is now a legal requirement in most countries that all species within the
ecosystem/food web are considered in depth before any new species is
intentionally introduced, but we’ve already messed this up too many times
before (and I’m sure will do so again).
If you want to read about
more situations like this, have a google of some of these invasive species…
Possums in New Zealand
Nile perch in Lake
Victoria
Burmese Python in Florida
(among many!!!)
Rant over! (Thanks for listening)
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