# Cane Toads



## AmazingMorelia (Mar 26, 2014)

The march of the toad is reaking havoc as im sure everyone is aware. I was talking to a herpertologist at the museum here and he was saying snakes and lizards are getting demolished in NT at the moment.
So why wouldnt the government be doing more. 
I have two ideas.
1. Make the canetoad exempt from animal cruelty laws
2. Pay a bounty of $1 per dead toad handed in. They could also employ Aboriginal people in communities where toads are to help eradicate them. Pay them a bounty per dead toad, and help both them and the environment. Im pretty sure the Aboriginal communities would do all they could to keep their lands safe from toads.

What other ideas do people have?


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## MesseNoire (Mar 26, 2014)

Number one won't happen. I can see the RSPCA getting on their high horse about it. After all, they pick and choose what suits them and I can see those idiots taking the "moral high ground" here.
Number two might be too expensive in the long run. Perhaps pay them by weight?
As in 1kg of toads eradicated = $x 
Don't get me wrong, we need to eradicate these pieces of crap just like all other feral pieces of crap to go with them, but there is always going to be a catch.


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## frostblue (Mar 26, 2014)

was not aware anyone really cared about the cruelty laws when it came to cane toads. i mean your average joe might pelt them with golf clubs or shoot them etc, but on a grand scale i suppose a government body cant do much because of the cruelty laws, despite the fact that what they do to our native wildlife is even more cruel. Buying dead toads would not work, people would just breed them then for easy money so it becomes counter-productive. if there was a way to do like they do with some pest insects, sterilize some then give them a disease that only effects the toads, but i am unsure if that would even work on a toad scale.


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## Rogue5861 (Mar 26, 2014)

1-10c per animal sounds a lot more reasonable. It isnt hard to get 10-200 in a night given you location.

Lets just introduce the black mambas like was suggested, im sure it cant get much worst 


Rick


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## jedi_339 (Mar 26, 2014)

Number 1 will never get approved or even looked on favourably by anyone. They are still animals regardless of our hatred towards them or not.


Number 2 should never happen because people just don't know enough about wildlife.

As someone who works in the wildlife industry the general population has no clue about animals in general. After all just look at the amount of myths perpetuated about snakes.

I could think of quite a number of frog species that lay people could easily mistake for adult cane toads or even baby toads, there was a story from the Gold Coast a number of years ago about a Green Tree Frog that was taken into Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary after a group of high school boys had mistaken it for a cane toad and tried to kill it, luckily it survived.

As soon as you add an incentive especially monetary to a problem you attract the wrong sorts of people looking to make a quick buck. Without proper training and enforcement many other native frogs will be killed or collected from the wild, not deliberate, just with the good intentions (or money driven) of the collectors.

The cane toad is here to stay, for the mean time, until a successful form of control is established. Prof. Richard Shine is doing a lot of research at the moment into baiting "toadpoles" and when I spoke to him a few months back there were quite a few new ideas and experiments being floated around that sound promising.

Watch this space.


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## RoryBreaker (Mar 27, 2014)

As cane toads are not labelled as a pest species to agriculture, they therefore do not attract funding for eradication from relevant government authorities. The environmental cost the toads inflict doesn't seem to matter to the politicians.

Field herpers are quickly running out of time to visit WA before the toads arrive in force. The glory days of herping the NT are sadly gone.


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## AUSHERP (Mar 27, 2014)

They have certainly taken over in many areas, a more reasonable approach would be to contract the work out to a few trained crews and pay them a weekly wage to collect X amount of adult toads or X kg of toads. Then gas the toads and dispose of them. 
The toad drive needs to be direct and purposed, a public bounty is too hopeful.


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## ryanbichel (Mar 27, 2014)

I say we get payed, make clubs that shoot them with say a air rifle ( this would be extra fun) or breed more keelbacks! I know a couple of guys who have built a tin fence( igh enough off the ground so that toads cant jump over and then the sit there all night one weekend and shoot the hell out of em with a air rifle


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## Drazzy (Mar 27, 2014)

ryanbichel said:


> I say we get payed, make clubs that shoot them with say a air rifle ( this would be extra fun) or breed more keelbacks! I know a couple of guys who have built a tin fence( igh enough off the ground so that toads cant jump over and then the sit there all night one weekend and shoot the hell out of em with a air rifle



breed and release program for keelbacks for sure!


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## Pythoninfinite (Mar 27, 2014)

Neither of the options mentioned, even if implemented with enthusiasm, would have the slightest effect on toad numbers overall. They are too prolific and widespread to make collecting of any use. A female lays eggs in the tens of thousands, and even the tadpoles are toxic.

The only possibility is some sort of biological control, but I believe John Howard cut funds for research in this area several years ago, and this mob with their stupid "budget emergency" and total lack of interest in the health of the wild environment probably wouldn't even know about Cane Toads, let alone consider them as probably the most catastrophic environmental issue of our time.

Jamie


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## Cold-B-Hearts (Mar 27, 2014)

i remember reading something about a catch that can be placed in ponds, apprently it attracts all the cane toad tadpoles then they can be killed in the thousands, best of all it dosnt affect native species because of something to do with the scent of cane toads and there poison. if anyone knows about this a link would be amazing. I read it and believed cane toads wont be a problem for to long.


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## andynic07 (Mar 27, 2014)

Pythoninfinite said:


> Neither of the options mentioned, even if implemented with enthusiasm, would have the slightest effect on toad numbers overall. They are too prolific and widespread to make collecting of any use. A female lays eggs in the tens of thousands, and even the tadpoles are toxic.
> 
> The only possibility is some sort of biological control, but I believe John Howard cut funds for research in this area several years ago, and this mob with their stupid "budget emergency" and total lack of interest in the health of the wild environment probably wouldn't even know about Cane Toads, let alone consider them as probably the most catastrophic environmental issue of our time.
> 
> Jamie



That is quite interesting about babies being toxic because when I was young I used to catch gts and keep them for about 6 months and fed them on baby toads and skinks with no visible signs of poisoning. I would release them back into the wild after I had kept them for a while. I was of the thinking that the poison hadn't developed yet because their glands did not secrete anything and the Internet wasn't around back then.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## kwaka (Mar 27, 2014)

CANE TOAD TADPOLE CONTROL

An interesting read - a small injection of funding would make this happen, Mr Government Budget Dude.


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## Rogue5861 (Mar 27, 2014)

The biggest problem along the top end is how remote most of it is, toads breeding in the tens of thousands and given free run of everything.

More reseach is definately need were we can "crop dust" a spray that will only affect toads. Or a cancer like what is only effecting tasmanian devils. 


Rick


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## Cold-B-Hearts (Mar 27, 2014)

kwaka said:


> CANE TOAD TADPOLE CONTROL
> 
> An interesting read - a small injection of funding would make this happen, Mr Government Budget Dude.


This is what i was referring to.


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## SteveNT (Mar 27, 2014)

In the NT the tadpole scent method was being used very successfully and kept toad numbers down to a minimum. Our idiot (NT) government however has withdrawn the 200k funding for this program so next year they will be back in massive numbers and the improvements in populations of blue tongues, varanids, frillies etc will be reversed. Extremely frustrating when the Chief Idiot hires 737s to take him and his cronies to meetings at a cost far greater than the cane toad control.

Well, 3 of his ministers walked out today, hopefully a fresh election coming, a new government and the reinstating of the funding! Hopefully.


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## phatty (Mar 27, 2014)

andynic07 said:


> That is quite interesting about babies being toxic because when I was young I used to catch gts and keep them for about 6 months and fed them on baby toads and skinks with no visible signs of poisoning. I would release them back into the wild after I had kept them for a while. I was of the thinking that the poison hadn't developed yet because their glands did not secrete anything and the Internet wasn't around back then.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


are you sure you where using cane toads and not a native frog


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## jedi_339 (Mar 27, 2014)

The full paper is titled

"Exploiting intraspecific competitive mechanisms to control invasive cane toads (_Rhinella marina_)"

You should be able to find a copy of the paper by throwing that into google, it's a good read.

The technique works really well, as I've trialled it for work. The rights to the trap design are owned by the university and another party I believe. No doubt it will be made commercially in the future.

I do remember reading a number of years ago about genetically modifying cane toads to only give rise to other males and each successive generation breeding only males, have you heard anything about this Jamie? Or was it purely theoretical?


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## phatty (Mar 27, 2014)

here is a pic I took just the other night


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## andynic07 (Mar 27, 2014)

phatty said:


> are you sure you where using cane toads and not a native frog



Not 100% sure but pretty sure by the look and as there wasn't any signs of other frogs besides gtf's. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## phatty (Mar 27, 2014)

View attachment Pearson et al 2013 behav resp to toads.pdf


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## Pythoninfinite (Mar 27, 2014)

One of the biggest problems with genetic or microbiological (virus, bacterial or fungal) is that these things would be easily transported to the countries where Cane Toads occur naturally, and despite the damage they are doing here, it could compound the problems they cause if they are wiped out in places where they are part of the natural balance. Catch 22...

Jamie


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## borntobnude (Mar 27, 2014)

If they are going to do anything about the Cane Toads money must also be spent reducing the Crown of Thorn . This animal is doing greater damage to the environment and it in turn is affecting Tourism, ie Visitors to the Barrier Reef 
\
Interestingly one of mums friends (unfortunately died recently ) Perry Harvey -- a reef tour operator from Mission Beach , had Harold Holt on his boat and had a firm promise that government money would be used to help eradicate the crown of thorn and cane toad . One month later Harold Holt Disappeared forever .


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## butters (Mar 27, 2014)

I'm being optimistic in thinking that the numbers of reptiles in areas newly colonized by cane toads will bounce back if a large enough number of each species survives. Probably not back to pre toad numbers but they will come back.

They have in Queensland. 

Mammals are a different story.


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