Cane
toads are pest animals - at least in Australia.
They are big,
they are ugly,
and in some
places they are everywhere, so
you have to watch your steps to not to step on one.
They are too poisonous
to
touch and too disgusting to step on, so all you can do is to walk
around one and do your best to ignore it.
And that's hard to do too because they don't belong here, being introduced pests
that kill and
compete with native animals.
The toad (Bufo
marinus) is
native
to central and south America and has, besides Australia,
been
introduced to about 15 other countries.
I am not sure
if they have other popular names in the other countries,
but
at least its name in Australia - cane toad
- comes from sugar cane
that the toad was
meant to save from cane beetles (never did).
You
cannot travel through eastern Queensland, not even along the main
coastal highway, without noticing just
how widely grown sugar cane is.
A lot of the
time you have cane fields on both sides of the road
anywhere between Daintree
in the north
and Hervey Bay in the south.
The cane has been grown
here since the
early 1900s, mainly by generations of south European
immigrants.
In the early 1930s,
before
chemicals (and don't even get me started on that subject..)
started being used
in the sugar cane industry, they
had
problems with cane beetles that destroyed the cane.
Somebody smart said that a big American toad could be the perfect
solution as it was known for being a hardy animal and an efficient
predator.
So Bufo marinus was introduced from Hawaii,
and
after a period of time growing and breeding in captivity, was released
to the wild in many spots along coastal Queensland (Cairns, Innisfail,Ingham, Ayr, Mackay and
Bundaberg. The
first lot was released in
1935 in
Gordonvale just
south of Cairns). Like many
other introduced animals, cane
toads
were and still are very successful, and have by now spread
all
the way south to the border of New South Wales, and west, through
Northern Territory to the border of Western Australia.
And they did not affect the cane beetles (why - you will have explained
at the Cane Toad Races).
What
Do the Cane Toads Look
Like?
Cane
toads can look a bit
like some of our native frogs (such as giant burrowing frog and eastern pobblebonk frog), but their skin
is warty and drier.
They can grow up to
10-20cm
long but the largest one
recorded was 24cm.
Big for an amphibian.
And they
sit upright.
They are most often brownish,
but
can also be grey or yellowish, and the belly is paler but has a pattern
with dark mottlings.
Their head can look almost swollen because of their large poison glands behind their
ears.
They are easier seen during darkness
hours, as they like to burrow themselves into moist soil
during
the midday and afternoon heat.
What
Do the Cane Toads Eat and
What Eats
Them?
Cane
toads eat
mainly insects(bugs,
beetels, crickets,
termites,
ants, bees) but
will also eat food scraps, dead animals and steal pet food.
Occasionally they also take a snail, a small native frog, a small snake
and even a small mammal.
Tadpoles eat water plants such as algae, and filter organic matter from
the water. Occasionally they cannibalise on cane toad eggs.
Tadpoles are eaten by keelback snakes, saw shelled turtles, water
beetles and dragonfly nymphs.
The animals, and birds, that eat adult cane toads include crocodiles,
water
rats, wolf spiders, kites, crows, bush curlews, tawny frogmouths
and
white faced herons.
Some predators,
such as keelback snakes and saw shelled turtles can tolerate their poison,
but most
have learned to avoid eating the poison glands.
Breeding
and Life Cycle
Their breeding season
is the
Wet Season, and mating starts after the first storms. In some places
they can also mate and breed all year around.
Females lay about 20,000 eggs that hatch in about 48 hours. Once they
hatch they become tadpoles
and
that stage lasts about 10 weeks but can vary depending on water
temperatures and food resources.
The next stage is toadlets
that get out of the water, and that stage can last a year (in the
tropics including Cape York) or two (further south) before they reach
maturity.
They can live for up to 15 years (in captivity) but in the wild up to
five year olds have been recorded.
How
Are They Bad for
Environment?
No
introduced species is good in
an
environment where they don't belong.
* Like other introduced animals, they compete
with native species about food resources and habitat.
* They kill native
wildlife
that feed on amphibians, because they are poisonous.
* They can also carry diseases that can be transmitted to native
wildlife.
Indirectly the above affects
other
species in the food chain and finally the entire food web
and
ecosystem.
Native frogs and reptiles
(geckos, skinks,
and other small lizards)
whose niche they use
obviously
decrease in numbers.
Native animals that feed
on them
include freshwater
crocodiles, goannas, quolls, dingos, red bellied
black snakes, tiger snakes, and death adders.
But goannas for example feed on crocodile eggs. So obviously that
increases the amount of crocodiles.
And that's only one example. The ecosystem eventually gets out of
balance, some species may be favoured, others may finally go extinct.
They Are Also Dangerous to Us
and Our
Pets
They also poison a dog or a cat
that eats a
cane toad.
The signs include shallow
breathing, vomiting,
twitching,
profuse
salivation and
collapse of the
hind limbs.
It is a
kind of poison that
affects heart function,
and
the death may happen as quickly as within 15 minutes.
There have been no human
deaths in
Australia, but there have been human deaths in other
countries
where cane toads or their eggs have been eaten by humans.
However, their poison
can also
affect us externally.
If a cane toad feels threatened, it turns sideways towards the attacker
so that the venom glands are in the best position, and lets the poison ooze out of the
glands.
If you stick your arm or leg even closer or try to pick it up, it can squirt a spray of poison
over
a short distance.
Don't let that happen close to your face, because eyes, nose and mouth
have the kind of membranes that absorb
the poison.
It can
cause strong pain,
inflammation, skin
irritation, burning
of the hands and eyes,
and even
temporary blindness.
If that happens, wash
your
eyes, nose and mouth with plenty
of
water. If the symptoms don't go away, seek medical help.
Control
of Cane
Toads
There
are no simple methods to
get rid of
them however the
research is happening and different methods have been proposed to
control
them.
Some of the ideas include releasing sterile males, removing eggs from
ponds, and blocking access to waterholes.
If you have a native frog / fish pond that you want to protect, a half
a metre high fence around it does a pretty good job.
Cane
Toad Races
If you are from
southern parts of Australia, you
may have never seen a cane toad.
You will most likely see them in the bush and around human dwellings
while you are up here, but if not there
is a great chance not only to see them but also to get up and close.
The place is the famous Iron
Bar in Port Douglas, and as you see people are quite happy
not only to hold them but even kiss them!
Run by a guy from the Hartley Crocodile Adventure, it's good fun and a
chance to win some prizes.
Every
participant will have to get
their toad going, and the quickest ones win drinks, dinner vouchers and
entrance tickets to the
Hartley Crocodile Adventure, but
most of all it's worth watching
for a good laugh :-)
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This site uses British
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This is the ORIGINAL Cape York Travel Guide run Locally on the Peninsula.