birding-aus

Cane Toads spreading!

To: <>, <>
Subject: Cane Toads spreading!
From: "Tim Murphy" <>
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 17:00:13 +1000
They used to be a big problem in Brisbane, perhaps 15 years or 20 ago, but I
hardly ever see or hear one now and I used to see 100s every night. Note I
say, USED TO BE A PROBLEM, the problem is self limiting and the last thing
to do is to try to poison them or use some kind of control - you'll probably
end up doing more damage.

I think the reason is that birds such as Ducks, Ibises and Crows have learnt
the trick of eating them safely. You, 1) Turn them over. 2) You have the
choice of either going through the stomach or the mouth - either way you get
a delicious meal of entrails and guts and leave the poisonous skin of the
back to ants, etc.

of course, if I do see one I try to kill it, but I've only seen one this
year.

Tim Murphy

-----Original Message-----
From: 
 Behalf Of Andrew Taylor
Sent: Friday, 22 October 2004 4:23 PM
To: 
Subject: Cane Toads spreading!


On Thu, Oct 21, 2004 at 06:55:04PM +1000, Edwin Vella wrote:
>    I was listening to the ABC radio news this afternoon and they
>    mentioned the prediction of Cane Toads spreading to Darwin and the
>    Kimberley region in WA within the next 20 years (however, I think
>    unfortunately it may be much earlier than that) and even further south
>    around the Australian coast if nothing can or is done about them. As I
>    am aware they are spreading NW (after encountering a few recently in
>    Kakadu NP), but I am wandering how far south along the east coast they
>    progressing?

I believe the southern front is just south of Yamba in NSW. I've heard
2km/year mentioned as the expansion rate in NSW - no idea how accurate
this is.  And on this topic here is an unusual toad-bird story:

http://townsvillebulletin.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,11148322%255E
14787,00.html

Andrew
--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to 

--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to 


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU