Hi Graham,
While I'm interested in Dr Shine's idea I think the science is still a way
off being able to produce what he requires. If the pheremone and lung worm
truly only affect toads then this is great news and should definitely be
explored. However, you should realise that a single gravid female Cane Toad
can lay 50 000 eggs, so trapping isn't really an option. Miss a few
pregnant females and you have hundreds of thousands of toads next year. The
Cane Toad front seems to travel about 30km a year regardless of efforts to
stop it. This seems to be because they have managed to adapt to the dry
season conditions well enough to survive winter and then move during
summer/wet season when they are pretty safe from interference from humans.
If you have any practical, cost effective suggestions I'm sure the WA
authorities would be particularly interested.
Regards,
Chris
On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 1:06 PM, Graham Turner <> wrote:
> I was amazed at the number of Cane Toads in and around Darwin and Kakadu
> as seen during my recent trip north. Equally amazing but totally disgusting
> was the almost complete lack of effort going in to slow these deadly beasts
> down. I think the words I used was 'national disgrace.'
>
> I did see one set up using solar powered lights to 'bait' traps for
> catching larger toads. Great idea, lets have another 10,000 of them.
> Captured beasts were being converted into fertiliser on a very low tech
> basis, on a similar line to the 'Charlie Carp' idea.
>
> Now Prof Rick Shine has an idea, see
>
> http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/teacher-toads-to-save-wildlife/2008/05/06/1209839649503.html
>
> Seems a bit kooky but may just work.
>
> Cheers
> Graham Turner
>
>
> Teacher toads to save wildlife
> Richard Macey
> May 7, 2008
>
> "THERE should be an education drive to warn wildlife about the lethal
> threat posed by cane toads, a scientist says.
>
> As part of this campaign, "teacher toads" would be released into the
> outback to conduct a school of hard knocks, so to speak.
>
> "At first sight it sounds like a crazy idea," Rick Shine of the University
> of Sydney said yesterday.
>
> However, Professor Shine, an expert on cane toads who will outline his
> plan today in an address at the Australian Academy of Science in Canberra,
> is serious.
>
> Native animals that mistook cane toads for frogs suffered agonising deaths
> from the poisons they exuded, Professor Shine said, but animals lucky enough
> to survive never repeated the mistake.
>
> He proposed releasing infertile baby male cane toads "many hundreds of
> times less toxic" than larger adults, into selected areas ahead of the
> invasion front.
>
> Native animals that tried to eat the teacher toads could "feel miserable"
> and vomit up the meal but would survive and remember their lesson.
>
> Female toads arriving would also be unaware that the teacher toads were
> not only infertile but artificially infected with a parasite that attacked
> only cane toads.
>
> Professor Shine said it had long been known that toads and native frogs
> carried lung worms. But last month DNA tests revealed worms carried by toads
> were native to South America. The worms were often fatal to small cane toads
> but harmless to Australian wildlife.
>
> Researchers also found that a natural pheromone given off by injured or
> stressed toads could be used as a weapon. Overexposure to this pheromone is
> hazardous to toad tadpoles. "It kills about half the cane toad tadpoles but
> does not affect native species," Professor Shine said.
>
> But even if the parasite and the pheromone killed 90 per cent of the
> toads, the survivors would still pose a threat to wildlife, Professor Shine
> said."
>
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