# New plan to live with cane toads



## News Bot (Mar 17, 2010)

*Published On:* 17-Mar-10 04:06 PM
*Source:* AAP via NEWS.com.au

THE Federal Government plans to abandon efforts to eradicate cane toads, and instead focus on saving certain areas and animals from the pest.

*Go to Original Article*


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## Bushfire (Mar 17, 2010)

I knew it was gonna come down to this, and have been waiting for this for some time. The government has been far to slow in its attempts to eradicate the pest. The problems was well beyond reach well before they even started thinking maybe we should be doing something. Sure their attempts have in some way slowed the advance into WA, but it hasn't stopped the advance. Looking at the issues as a whole, we really aren't making any head way into the problem. We do know quite alot about the toad but nothing on how to contain it with IMO no possible effective, and efficient method of control likely to be seen for many many years.

I would like to see alot of funding directed to saving "at risk" species in the kimberley and in areas ahead of the frontline.


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## jack (Mar 17, 2010)

20 million dollars since '86... wow, what an investment in our future. 
that is f'ing pathetic when the you consider how much the govt has spent on other projects. 
eg 300 million $ on bribing sadam hussiens regime to buy our wheat.


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## SLACkra (Mar 17, 2010)

Jack if that complete lack of funding annoys you don't look at how much they spend per annum to conserve our threatened and endangered species...


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## herptrader (Mar 18, 2010)

I suspect that if they had spent 20 times that much that the current outcome would be much the same.


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## moosenoose (Mar 18, 2010)

Well, that's just dandy! We're good at killing virtually everything else on the planet, but ....yep.....that's it....give in!


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## Vincey (Mar 18, 2010)

Cant wait to smack me some cane toads, never done it due to being a perth kid xD

haha, just jokes. dont get all crazy


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## ShaunMorelia (Mar 18, 2010)

VinceFASSW said:


> Cant wait to smack me some cane toads, never done it due to being a perth kid xD
> 
> haha, just jokes. dont get all crazy


Smack em all you want. grab a golf club and practice your driving skillz


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## ShaunMorelia (Mar 18, 2010)

im curious tho.
Are there groups up in qld (as the toads are in thir hundreds of thousands in qld) that are volunteer based that go out collecting cane toads?
As would it be one way of help reducing the breeding population if there was a group that help 2 nights a month to go out collecting cane toads and euthanise them?

im sure there would be a few people within each community that would be interested in doing this.?

I know this could only be like a drop of water in the ocean but, surely any collection would be better than none.


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## JasonL (Mar 18, 2010)

1 Female Toad can lay 35,000 eggs...... twice a year.... removing toads here and there in ideal habitat does little to depreciate their numbers as they have many more that will take their place. Suitable habitat and food intake would be the main factors limiting their numbers.


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## ShaunMorelia (Mar 18, 2010)

so if 1 collection night takes away say 4 females thats preventing another 280 000 toads from making it into the world. if this was done 2 nights a month for 1 year, thats preventing 6,720,000 toads a year from making it into the world....


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## JasonL (Mar 18, 2010)

Yes, but the majority of young toads are only food for bigger toads, take the bigger toads and the young ones will take their place, you can't win either way... unless you fence off an area and remove EVERY toad.


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## Mayhem (Mar 18, 2010)

jack said:


> 20 million dollars since '86... wow, what an investment in our future.
> that is f'ing pathetic when the you consider how much the govt has spent on other projects.
> eg 300 million $ on bribing sadam hussiens regime to buy our wheat.



I am Jacks complete lack of suprise! (Fight Club) hehehe


or...


I am Jacks complete lack of funding


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## Wild_Storm (Mar 18, 2010)

The_S_Word said:


> im curious tho.
> Are there groups up in qld (as the toads are in thir hundreds of thousands in qld) that are volunteer based that go out collecting cane toads?
> As would it be one way of help reducing the breeding population if there was a group that help 2 nights a month to go out collecting cane toads and euthanise them?
> 
> ...


 
I know that Member for Dalrymple, Shane Knuth, is all for the removal of Toads & he hinted that you can also practise Cricket with them too. Lol. I have a fish pond & regularly remove the eggs or tadpoles if I missed the eggs. 

And as for the toads- well I try to kill them any way that I can- car, dettol, salt, freezer- whatever I can use. I HATE them & I HATE what they are doing to our environment & our native animals. My brother is just as effective in the NT, but if EVERYONE go off their backsides & DID something rather than spoke about it... Well maybe they wouldn't have gotten as far.

Flame away, but I think the sight of a big BHP, or Goanna in the wild is SO much better than a Cane Toad.


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## ShaunMorelia (Mar 18, 2010)

JasonL said:


> Yes, but the majority of young toads are only food for bigger toads, take the bigger toads and the young ones will take their place, you can't win either way... unless you fence off an area and remove EVERY toad.


 
So its a bit of a catch 22 then.
If you take the bigger ones you stop them breeding the XX amount of babies, but in doing so you are letting the YY amount of babies that would have normally been eating by the large ones get ahead, and the cycle begins.....


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## DanTheMan (Mar 18, 2010)

Unless we discover a disease that will effect nothing but Cane Toads, they are here for good. For those saying why don't us Queenslanders get out and kill them, if you have been here you would know it's completely pointless. Even if we had the whole population go out each night, we couldn't get every single one, and look at how many toads we started off with, it would only take a few hundred to get them up and going in no time.


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## Wild_Storm (Mar 18, 2010)

The_S_Word said:


> So its a bit of a catch 22 then.
> If you take the bigger ones you stop them breeding the XX amount of babies, but in doing so you are letting the YY amount of babies that would have normally been eating by the large ones get ahead, and the cycle begins.....


 
I don't think so The_S_Word... If you removed all, not just a size... Then it should be pure area again, until more move in. That is where the problem would lie. It is getting areas clear & keeping them clear. Toads like wet/lit areas (moths gather) and pet food... Maybe if the Federal or State government would put a bounty on them (like they do with Pigs, Cats & Dogs) then it might make more incentive for people to be active.


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## NicG (Mar 18, 2010)

I cannot agree more with the concept of a bounty. Sure, it's not in any way a permanent solution, but it might buy some time for one to be found. And in new populations, it might just wipe them out entirely and stop their advance (at least for a while).

It could also have one other major benefit. It might get our increasingly obese youth away from their Playstations and engaging in some outdoors physical activity. Win / win, the way I see it ...


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## schizmz (Mar 18, 2010)

The_S_Word said:


> so if 1 collection night takes away say 4 females thats preventing another 280 000 toads from making it into the world. if this was done 2 nights a month for 1 year, thats preventing 6,720,000 toads a year from making it into the world....


 
And thats what we should of been doing 30 years ago..1 night a week...4 nights a month imo.i remember my parents and their friends wondering why the government wasn't asking for public assistance and that was 1975!..imagine if we had been doing it since then..the wildlife that would of been saved..due to the fact that these toads are toxic from conception to death means we cannot rely on nature to do it's bit..they are just to toxic.. we as a people need to step in and help our wildlife.  matches are over there for the flamers.


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## ShaunMorelia (Mar 18, 2010)

how about we introduce their natural predator from their native land.....that should fix it lol


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## schizmz (Mar 18, 2010)

AM - New study finds cane toad predator they never will..theres a few things that can eat the toads,but i think they are scared .
*Predators*

Many species prey on the cane toad in its native habitat. These include the Broad-snouted Caiman (_Caiman latirostris_), the Banded Cat-eyed Snake (_Leptodeira annulata_), the eel (family: Anguillidae), various species of killifish,[40] the Rock flagtail (_Kuhlia rupestris_), some species of catfish (order: Siluriformes) and some species of ibis (subfamily: Threskiornithinae).[40] Predators outside the cane toad's native range include the Whistling Kite (_Haliastur sphenurus_), the Rakali (_Hydromys chrysogaster_), the Black Rat (_Rattus rattus_) and the Water Monitor (_Varanus salvator_). There have been occasional reports of the Tawny Frogmouth (_Podargus strigoides_) and the Papuan Frogmouth (_Podargus papuensis_)[41] feeding on cane toads


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## ShaunMorelia (Mar 18, 2010)

yeah i wasn't being serious, but surprised at the raptors that can eat them tho....


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## Slats (Mar 18, 2010)

I observe crows eating them fairly often too, smart little buggers.
the flip them over.


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## Fuscus (Mar 18, 2010)

jack said:


> 20 million dollars since '86... wow, what an investment in our future.
> that is f'ing pathetic when the you consider how much the govt has spent on other projects.
> eg 300 million $ on bribing sadam hussiens regime to buy our wheat.


1.2 mill a year. Wonder what the parliament house bar tab is?



VinceFASSW said:


> Cant wait to smack me some cane toads, never done it due to being a perth kid xD
> 
> haha, just jokes. dont get all crazy



Its nothing great. Wack, dead toad, Wack, dead toad. It is, however, quick and humane, much better than detol or freezing 



The_S_Word said:


> So its a bit of a catch 22 then.
> If you take the bigger ones you stop them breeding the XX amount of babies, but in doing so you are letting the YY amount of babies that would have normally been eating by the large ones get ahead, and the cycle begins.....


BABY TOADS
Its the same reason crocs came back so quick. We removed their main predator - big crocs.



schizmz said:


> AM - New study finds cane toad predator they never will..theres a few things that can eat the toads,but i think they are scared .



Debunking Cane Toad Control Myths



Slats said:


> I observe crows eating them fairly often too, smart little buggers.
> the flip them over.


At my fathers plant nursery, we used to throw any toads found at the crow pick up point. The crows would watch the area and fly down when dinner was served. The toad would be stunned by a wack on the back of the head by the crow,who would then grab the toad by a hind leg and fly off. Never saw a crow eat a toad but they kept coming back.
But crows will never be a major predator of toads as they are diurnal


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## shane14 (Mar 18, 2010)

time for the Nuke, haha jokes haha. Nasty bastards canetoads are


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## D3pro (Mar 18, 2010)

I don't think the government knows how serious this is! How many species has this endangered? The problem is that native mammals, and mammals in general, can learn from their mistakes like they have done so in the past... but our reptiles don't work that way, reptiles like red bellies can't learn that toad means death. 

Money wise, the so called government was free of debt before the Rudd era, all thanks to P. Castello... but now? now our country is billions of dollars in debt... for what? I doubt anyone can compare the benefits our government has used billions of dollars on to the issues that our Eco-system is suffering right now... 

We still have endangered species, we still have toads, we still have illegal animals on our shores... I can go on and on and on... At the end of the day, we are turning... no... we have turned our untouched country into a mess, soon we will only be able to remember and see some of our great species through pictures, like the Tasmanian tiger. 

Human governments will never change... selfish, egotistic, careless and downright stupid. 

My 4 cents.

D.


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## Bushfire (Mar 18, 2010)

Its sad but true. We lost the war before they even spent $1. To have had any chance IMO they should never have lifted the ban on new introductions (only one year after the initial release) or have started a more concentrated effort in the 40s once it would of been clear the introduction was a total failure and containment may just may have been possible. 

Maybe future generations will blame us for just waving the white flag and not having the courage or conviction to spend more money on conservation projects; just as we blame past generations for their total lack of forsight.


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## saratoga (Mar 18, 2010)

It really is disgraceful...the problem should have been solved years ago.

Imagine how quickly it would have been fixed if cows ate toads and were poisoned by them! At the very least toads should have been stopped from entering the NT. i'm very glad I experienced the Top End prior to the arrival of toads for its a very different place now.

Some interesting work being done that shows that in some localised areas toads can be completely eliminated in just 5 to 10 days by blocking their water supply...ie exclusion fencing around dams etc particularly during the late dry season in the Top End.

Much more than goannas, snakes, bluetongues, quolls, sugar gliders etc are being lost to toads...important food sources for aboriginal people have disappeared and in time the stories and knowledge about those animals will go as well!

It is a real tradgedy that the goverment has chosen to basically ignore this problem.


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## D3pro (Mar 18, 2010)

saratoga said:


> Imagine how quickly it would have been fixed if cows ate toads and were poisoned by them



Yes cause as soon as the government hears money falling out of the economy it's all guns blazing... but when it's our native wildlife it's all brushed under the carpet like it never existed. This is why I don't like voting... why should i choose another F%$* up to run our country and not think of the important things... they say it's our choice of government but all they do is lie and cheat and waste our tax money on roads and football stadiums when their are 100's of better things to invest in!!!


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## Noongato (Mar 18, 2010)

Since when were people too lazy to kill something.
You get payed 5c a can, and people go to some extremes to collect them, so make cane toads 20c a head for their leather (makes me some car seats people *wink wink*) and im sure the population would be cut down pretty damn rapidly.


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## herptrader (Mar 18, 2010)

The_S_Word said:


> yeah i wasn't being serious, but surprised at the raptors that can eat them tho....



People can eat them as well.. mainly the legs... just don't eat the poison glands!


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## grimbeny (Mar 18, 2010)

I think its about time. Every dollar that is spent with the sole aim of eradicating the cane toad is going to be a waste. 

Removing any number of toads from already inhabited areas will have little to no effect. The government is doing the right thing, the best option is trying to mitigating the effects of the toad on species such as the quolls and various reptile sp.


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