Death to cane toads

Our daughter & husband live in Arnhem Land and use Dettol spray (and sometimes shovels) to kill Cane Toads. They are a BIG pest up there.

Also, at a local school up in the area there is hole dug close to the building (it is for access to a water tap connection). From memory it is about one foot deep and if the cane toads jump/fall into the hole, they can't get out. Seems they can't jump as high as other frogs???

One year we were camped at Mataranka on the way up to Arnhem Land and were surprised to cop an earful from a "local" (Darwin person) when we killed some Cane toads on our way back to our camp.(We put the dead toads in the rubbish bins). My wife politely explained the environmental problems they were causing, but the guy still wasn't happy we were killing them.:confused:

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Originally Posted by KarlB

Cane Toads are known to be infected by the chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) but they are relatively tolerant to the infection. The issues is more that they are carriers of the 'disease'.

Cheers
KarlB
:)

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so as carriers of chytrid, in your opinion, would you agree that friend Bufo has been a significant contibutor to wet tropic and SE Qld frog decline in the genuses mentioned? And if so do we have a winner as to a possible extinction in Rheobatrachus silus? Must be coming up on 30 years since last sighted.

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Originally Posted by crump

so as carriers of chytrid, in your opinion, would you agree that friend Bufo has been a significant contibutor to wet tropic and SE Qld frog decline in the genuses mentioned? And if so do we have a winner as to a possible extinction in Rheobatrachus silus? Must be coming up on 30 years since last sighted.

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A friend of mine has a PhD studying frogs and runs the native species breeding program at a major AU zoo (including some rare/endangered frog species). She was the person who told me no extinctions due to cane toads.

Many people believe that the anti-toad programs have had little/no effect for the expenditure.

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Originally Posted by crump

so as carriers of chytrid, in your opinion, would you agree that friend Bufo has been a significant contibutor to wet tropic and SE Qld frog decline in the genuses mentioned? And if so do we have a winner as to a possible extinction in Rheobatrachus silus? Must be coming up on 30 years since last sighted.

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Rheobatrachus silus last recorded in the wild 1981 with last known speciemen dying in captivity in November 1983. Whether cane toads have played in a significant role in the demise of R. silus and other frogs is not something I would like to comment on other than to say 40% of all frog species world wide have suffered significant decline in recent years with many of them having have no association with cane toads, or occuring naturally with cane toads. You may like to have a look at the chytrid threat abatement plan and background report http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiv...rid-report.pdf, http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiv...background.pdf and the National recovery plan for Stream Frogs of South-east Queensland 2001-2005 - Contents.

Cheers
KarlB
:)

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Originally Posted by isuzurover

A friend of mine has a PhD studying frogs and runs the native species breeding program at a major AU zoo (including some rare/endangered frog species). She was the person who told me no extinctions due to cane toads.

Many people believe that the anti-toad programs have had little/no effect for the expenditure.

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I don't think the issue is whether cane toads have caused any extinctions or not. It is amply clear that they are having a significant impact on the ecology of the areas in which they are abundant. There are also social and economic impacts.

As for expenditure, that has been largely directed towards research so it is to be expected that there would not yet be any impact on toad numbers. We clearly need something more than spray can Dettol to and golf clubs to get them under control, so we first need to find out how we do that. Otherwise, we will be just throwing money away on hare-brained schemes.

Cheers
KarlB
:)

I see a simple answer here, there are approx 200 million cane toads in Australia. Our population is over 20 million. If we each go out and kill 10 cane toads we will have eridicated the problem.

its even easier, just pollute every water source in the country to the point that no life can exist, including toad tadpoles and we're sweet.:D

car tyre, shovel, stick, boot what ever it takes to kill another dam cane toad and I'm there. Same with those Asian geckos.

I ride at night in local state forrest around Brisbane and it's mind blowing and disgusting the amount of cane toads in our bush lands.

An absolute disgrace from our Governments and Customs agencies.

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Originally Posted by newhue

car tyre, shovel, stick, boot what ever it takes to kill another dam cane toad and I'm there. Same with those Asian geckos.

I ride at night in local state forrest around Brisbane and it's mind blowing and disgusting the amount of cane toads in our bush lands.

An absolute disgrace from our Governments and Customs agencies.

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the Asian House gecko hasnt been proven to displace native species, its ecology seems closely tied to human habitation, (its not like Brissy houses were overun with Gehyra's before they surfaced.) My thought is to be thankful for the (semi) natural pest control.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by newhue

car tyre, shovel, stick, boot what ever it takes to kill another dam cane toad and I'm there. Same with those Asian geckos.

I ride at night in local state forrest around Brisbane and it's mind blowing and disgusting the amount of cane toads in our bush lands.

An absolute disgrace from our Governments and Customs agencies.

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They were purposely introduced in 1935 to control cane beetles. Don't think you can blame Customs. The Federal Government at the time was a conservative coalition under PM Joseph Lyons.

Cheers
KarlB
:)