Thread: The Cane Toad And The Goanna

G'day Scarry

Don't get the Keelback mixed up with the Rough Scaled Tiapan aka Agressive Tiapan,Western Tiapan known locally (Caboolture area) as "Scally Charlie" there is not much that can survive his bite they look very like a Keelback, but react like a king brown and will chase you for sport.

cheers

Originally Posted by UncleHo

G'day Scarry

Don't get the Keelback mixed up with the Rough Scaled Tiapan aka Agressive Tiapan,Western Tiapan known locally (Caboolture area) as "Scally Charlie" there is not much that can survive his bite they look very like a Keelback, but react like a king brown and will chase you for sport.

cheers

Correct,& one of the deadliest snakes around,only difference between them is if you look at scale counts.Don't know if rough scaled can survive toad venom as well?

Apparently the rough scaled is not as common in our area,but we stay well away from both.The red belly black is also very aggressive at times,likes the waterways as well,we used to see huge one's around,didn't go near them.

Originally Posted by UncleHo

G'day Folks

that is the trouble with the "Buffo" it has no known preditors,they are a favourite of the Red Bellied Black Snake, snake eat's toad,toad kills snake

cheers

Bufo Marinus, native to Central America. Introduced circa 1935 by the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations as a hoped for biological control of the the Greyback beetle and its grub. The depredations of this insect were such as that it could be likely that no sugar industry could exist in its habitat. Desperate measure for a desperate time.

Controlled experiments showed that the toad had a voracious appetite for the insect so it was released hoping that it could be successful like the Cactoblastis insect used to defeat the prickly pear disaster. Unfortunately the toad didn't restrict its diet to the Greyback beetle and grub.

Chemical control was not achieved until after WWII when the chlorinated hydrocarbon family of insecticides became available. BHC, Lindane, Gammexane, DDT, etc. Most now banned for any but highly restricted circumstances.

Originally Posted by scarry

Correct,& one of the deadliest snakes around,only difference between them is if you look at scale counts.Don't know if rough scaled can survive toad venom as well?

Apparently the rough scaled is not as common in our area,but we stay well away from both.The red belly black is also very aggressive at times,likes the waterways as well,we used to see huge one's around,didn't go near them.

I took this shot of a Tiapan which I think it is a good ID image

Good photo Arthur. Hope you were using a telephoto lens for that shot.

For those particularly interested, there is currently a Cane Toad Threat Abatement Plan being produced. The public consultation period has passed but the draft plan is still available from Draft Cane Toad (Bufo marinus) Threat Abatement Plan along with other useful Cane Toad information and links, including a quite reasonable factsheet at http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiv...ne-toad-fs.pdf.

Cheers
KarlB

Originally Posted by UncleHo

G'day Scarry

Don't get the Keelback mixed up with the Rough Scaled Tiapan aka Agressive Tiapan,Western Tiapan known locally (Caboolture area) as "Scally Charlie" there is not much that can survive his bite they look very like a Keelback, but react like a king brown and will chase you for sport. cheers

We have seen a Redbelly black eating a Clarence River Rough Scale snake, and the very deadly nocturnal Rough Scale Snake was caught in our bathroom once. We do catch snakes alive and relocate them, but not for others--way too dangerious-- so that this rough scale was relocated. So as Red belly blacks eat other more dangerious snakes we do want to get rid of the Cane Toad that is killing way too many of them.

I wonder if something like a Tea-Tree oil spray wwould kill the cane toad as well as Dettol, and it may be enviromently friendly.

Have not got cane toads where I live--1000 feet above sea level, but they are found less than 20 km away from me, so the invasion is coming. Maybe winters are too cold for them where I am [but we are frost free, at our house, but see frost just a bit below us].

Originally Posted by BMKal

Good photo Arthur. Hope you were using a telephoto lens for that shot.

or had a big sheet of glass in between you as in a cage.