Ugly toxic cane toads continue WA spread

[News Bot]

UGLY, poisonous cane toads are continuing to spread in Western Australia's Kimberley region and could reach Perth within 10 years, experts predict.

Published On: 10-May-13 07:15 PM
Source: via NEWS.com.au

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[SteveNT]

Surprised???

 

[saintanger]

not surprised at all, not much is being done to get rid of them. 1 person killing them wont make much of a difference but if everyone went out and killed as many as possible on a regular basis it would help. oh and i must say humanly kill them

 

[B_STATS]

Considering people decide what has value and what doesn't why not just decide Cane toad secretions or skins or whatever are SUPER valuable? I mean come on! This World is insane the way everything people want is always negative!

 

[SteveNT]

?

 

[Allan]

No, it won't eradicate the problem at all.

not surprised at all, not much is being done to get rid of them. 1 person killing them wont make much of a difference but if everyone went out and killed as many as possible on a regular basis it would help. oh and i must say humanly kill them

 

[saintanger]

but it would make a difference even if its small, every adult cane toad killed is less 50,000 baby cane toads.

so we should all sit around watching them hop over the border and kill everything in its path, i refuse to.

 

[Tobe404]

I wouldn't be surprised if they end up all over Australia.
Something more needs to be done to slow them down.
Sadly I doubt they will ever be wiped out completely.

 

[SteveNT]

They'll never take Canberra, the government would act! Our jets will see action at last.

 

[Skeptic]

No, it won't eradicate the problem at all.

I think you underestimate the destructive force we humans can have. Take the Passenger Pigeon for example. Literally billions of animals wiped out to the point of extinction just through hunting alone. The background extinction rate at the moment is 1000 times higher than normal thanks to human actions so I'm sure if we put our minds to it we can take out one more species Oh and there's nothing inhumane about a 9 iron to the head. Given the choice between that and the freezer I know what I'd choose.

 

[JasonL]

Look, they will never take over Canberra, but they will take over any area that gives them; A; the climate and habitat they thrive in and B; a food source... so whilst they will overtake the tropics, that will battle in cooler climates, removing them by hand is a waste of time, they reproduce at a faster rate than anyone can remove them by, whilst you may temporarily slow them, you will never stop them...
How many eggs do pigeons lay? 30,000? its just not the same deal....

 

[Skeptic]

Look, they will never take over Canberra, but they will take over any area that gives them; A; the climate and habitat they thrive in and B; a food source... so whilst they will overtake the tropics, that will battle in cooler climates, removing them by hand is a waste of time, they reproduce at a faster rate than anyone can remove them by, whilst you may temporarily slow them, you will never stop them...
How many eggs do pigeons lay? 30,000? its just not the same deal....

5 billion birds lay a lot of eggs but I get your point. It isn't the same thing. However, temporarily slowing them while we come up with a better idea is far better than sitting on our hands.

 

[JasonL]

Better ideas have been worked on for many years, and any "remedy" needs to be thought through for many years.. I am a realist, everyone who is willing is trying to get rid of them but the truth be told, not many people care.... and thats the sad truth, they have been around in qld for many many years.. to daye we have not been able to control rabbbits, foxes, rodents, mynas, hundreds of feral weeds, camels, donkeys, goats, pigs and so on and so on, and none of them have 30,000 babies in one hit!

 

[Skeptic]

Did you read the article? Local communities ARE making a difference. That's better than nothing.

 

[bohdi13]

There should be a bounty put on for them, even if it's 1 cent each haha something needs to encourage people to stop the problem. And nothing will happen if we don't act now, things will become extinct and numerous animals will die. If the government won't do anything about it we have too, obviously I can't... I'm thirteen Well I can help in someway such as donations if needed but I can't go hunting them because I live in Perth. The community needs to understand the destruction they are causing, they may not react to saying that those pesty, slimy and scary snakes are becoming endangered but they would react if we told hem it could make their lovel little ugly fluffy chihuahua sick or dead.(don't know if a can toad could kill a dog, but hey the media always makes everything out worse than it is)

Sure an intoxicated bogan with a golf club killing 5 of them won't stop the problem but it will make a difference none the less.

I find it so painful that we can't set up any traps or baits or snares that wouldn't hurt or capture native animals, I sit there in class and wonder what cold be done about the problem because I think it is the biggest problem in australia besides Julia Gillard

Bohdi.

 

[Allan]

Because of their enormous capacity to reproduce, killing one, you're basically just making room for another toad who didn't fit in.
Richard Shine gave a talk about the Cane toad problem a few weeks back. Very entertaining, but it ended with "we're losing the war, but there's light at the end of the tunnel"
Basically, we can not eradicate them, they're here to stay. There are some promising results in slowing down their travels and reducing their numbers.

 

[Zanks]

Anyone care to guess how much the fine is for inhumanely killing a cane toad??
Makes my head spin.

 

[gold&black...]

.

 

[saintanger]

Anyone care to guess how much the fine is for inhumanely killing a cane toad??
Makes my head spin.

probably be the same as killing a native animal inhumanely.

Queensland has a population of 4,560,059 now if everyone killed one cane toad that would make a difference. a few hundred people getting off their rear ends won't make much of a difference but a few million will.

i think the goverment should air a commercial on tv to show the destruction they are causing and the animals who are becoming extinct because of them and how to humanly kill them and maybe people might do something about it.

 

[Dendrobates]

What about areas that toads exist yet people don't live? How would people be able to kill them or even make a difference then? The most fragile areas that toads do/will affect are the areas that very small populations of humans inhabit (The Kimberley, etc). I was just recently in Western Australia and toads were nearly all the way across to Fitzroy Crossing (if you look on a map that's a long way across the top of WA). They are very thick on the ground from Kununurra down to Halls Creek.
There are still no species that have become extinct because of Toads in Australia, there is also a huge risk of many frog species (Mixophyes, etc) being slaughtered just because they resemble toads a little bit.