# Cane toads lose their killer touch in east Australia



## Fuscus (Jan 29, 2012)

Short Sharp Science: Cane toads lose their killer touch in east Australia


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## edstar (Jan 29, 2012)

That's amazing


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## Fuscus (Jan 29, 2012)

edstar said:


> That's amazing


Just evolution 101


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## SteveNT (Jan 29, 2012)

Good news for omnivores. Shame king browns dont fang a few vegies!


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## Fuscus (Jan 29, 2012)

SteveNT said:


> Good news for omnivores. Shame king browns dont fang a few vegies!


Perhaps the blueys will be kind enough to pass it up the food chain, possibly as gut content


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## JUNGLE-JAK (Jan 29, 2012)

*i catch em and give em to my mate
he feeds em to his keelback*


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## moosenoose (Jan 29, 2012)

Very interesting!


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## Vincey (Jan 29, 2012)

JAKO66 said:


> *i catch em and give em to my mate
> he feeds em to his keelback*


no you dont =\


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## waruikazi (Jan 29, 2012)

JAKO66 said:


> *i catch em and give em to my mate
> he feeds em to his keelback*



If you are legit (and i'm not sure that you are) i would be interested to know if the keelback is currently healthy. Keelbacks can survive the bufo toxin but it is not good for them, large doses still kill the animal.


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## Darlyn (Jan 29, 2012)

JAK066 is 12 let's play nice.


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## PythonLegs (Jan 29, 2012)

That's good for blue tongues..not sure how big a part of a blue tongues diet is made up of cane toads though...


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## waruikazi (Jan 29, 2012)

Frogs make up part of their diet so toads would definatley be in there. And the numbers of bluetongues around Darwin dropped dramatically when the toads turned up. I only recall seeing one after the toads arrived.



PythonLegs said:


> That's good for blue tongues..not sure how big a part of a blue tongues diet is made up of cane toads though...


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## mmafan555 (Jan 29, 2012)

Interesting...wonder if their is any difference between acquired resistance to a venom and acquired resistance to a poison.


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## lizardloco (Jan 29, 2012)

Good to hear, those annoying toads are a massive problem...
I saw an enclosure at the Australian Reptile Park with 2 of them (For educational purposes), they LITERALLY sat in the EXACT SAME position for the whole day I was there! (I kept on coming back to look at the mertens.)


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## lizardloco (Jan 29, 2012)

Darlyn said:


> JAK066 is 12 let's play nice.



I'm 12 and I get treated the same as everybody else...:lol:


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## fishunter (Jan 29, 2012)

Wait...bluetonges can swim?


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## Fuscus (Jan 29, 2012)

fishunter said:


> Wait...bluetonges can swim?


Only by using the Australian crawl


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## Renenet (Jan 29, 2012)

edstar said:


> That's amazing



Yes, it is. Blue tongue lizards can swim?

Fishunter already said it, but I just can't imagine a bluey swimming. Then again, the distance they had to cover was only 50 centimetres.


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## noved (Jan 29, 2012)

they could take the research further by testing predators in the area that prey on the blue tongues to see if they show any resilience to the cane toad toxin.


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## Rocket (Jan 29, 2012)

It's obvious, blue-tongues don't take crap from anything... native or foreign.


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## Darlyn (Jan 29, 2012)

lizardloco said:


> I'm 12 and I get treated the same as everybody else...:lol:



Perhaps you are a mature 12 year old that we have grown to love and know better than to post rubbish advice left right and centre.
You may have gone through this stage as well, who knows. He's eager that's a good thing : )


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## PythonLegs (Jan 29, 2012)

waruikazi said:


> Frogs make up part of their diet so toads would definatley be in there. And the numbers of bluetongues around Darwin dropped dramatically when the toads turned up. I only recall seeing one after the toads arrived.



That's interesting mate. I've been here in SE QLD for 20 years now..in the outer suburbs (and the city parklands, right in the heart of brisbane) Blue tongue numbers have slowly increased, to where they're probably the most often seen lizard (other than water skinks). But, in that time frog numbers have plummeted. It's been raining here for a fortnight, almost 24/7, and I still haven't heard a green tree frog. Even a couple of years back you would hear the odd one or two off in the distance somewhere. Pretty sad. Yes, I know some smart **** will say something about scientific evidence..nothing has changed in terms of infrastructure, habitat loss, etc... when it's getting hard to find to find frogs in boondall wetlands,but there are cane toads everywhere you look, theres something very wrong.


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## Darlyn (Jan 29, 2012)

I used to see blueys all the time up here, havent seen one for a long time now : (

Same as frillies, don't know the last time I saw one just hanging around, see plenty of toads tho.


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