Wack a toad in Australia?

[Lightyear]

Only down under!

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2010/06/04/australia-recruiting-tourists-toad-killers/

[Highlander]

A quick search uncovers an alarming infestation that has occured...

http://www.wildfilmhistory.org/film/319/Citizen+Cane+Toad+.html

Good old us, screwing up nature yet again...

Okay Oz folk - lets have the 4-1-1...

[Lightyear]

If the rabbits would only eat the toads  - problem solved!

[Freuds_Cat]

The problem is that the bloody rabbit issue is as bad as the cane toad issue. Foxes and mice are bad in South Aust at the moment. I used to have a key ring thing that was a tanned cane toad. Suncream didnt help him. 

[uwe]

92 million? You won't get them all to croak then.

[Freuds_Cat]

[Dave W]

Poor Baz! 

Can't you all just learn to love eating fried frogs legs?

[uwe]

Or Italian food like toadellinis?

[Freuds_Cat]

actually the best part of a frog is the breast.  Frog with ginger and curry leaves is sooo yum!

Bloody cane toads are no good though, poisonous.

[Dave W]

Bloody cane toads are no good though, poisonous.

I recall reading that chef Andrew Zimmern made and ate frogs toads legs from cane toads when he and his show traveled to Oz. They did have to be careful and remove the poison glands.

Edited to add video link. I'm not quite clear on this, it sounds like he sampled them but none of the Aussies would. Can't blame them!

[uwe]

I generally like toads. It's not the cane toads' fault that they got abducted into a habitat without natural predators for them. Speaking of which: From where they come from, those toads must be eaten by something. Why not import that to Aussieland while you're at it? Once all the toads are gone, the predator's numbers will dwindle too - unless it starts eating indigenous animals in which case you will be back to sqare one ...

[Lightyear]

Screwing with Mother Nature rarely works out well.  Somebody in Australia thought it was a good idea to import rabbits as well.

[Freuds_Cat]

No actually someone in England thought the rabbits (and the foxes) were a good idea 

The toads however were introduced by some dumb schmuck from the  Australian Sugar cane Bureau in the 30's to eat a beetle that eats sugar cane. It was unsuccessful in eating the beetles but very successful in wiping out huge numbers of native animals by poisoning them.

[uwe]

So it is being eaten by native animals after all, just not very wholesome!

Try these guys then:

"Predators
Many species prey on the cane toad in its native habitat. These include the Broad-snouted Caiman (Caiman latirostris), the Banded Cat-eyed Snake (Leptodeira annulata), the eel (family: Anguillidae), various species of killifish,[40] the Rock flagtail (Kuhlia rupestris), some species of catfish (order: Siluriformes) and some species of ibis (subfamily: Threskiornithinae).[40] Predators outside the cane toad's native range include the Whistling Kite (Haliastur sphenurus), the Rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster), the Black Rat (Rattus rattus) and the Water Monitor (Varanus salvator). There have been occasional reports of the Tawny Frogmouth (Podargus strigoides) and the Papuan Frogmouth (Podargus papuensis)[41] feeding on cane toads. It is likely that an opossum of the Didelphis genus can eat cane toads with impunity.[42]"

And, to be fair to the much derided  "dumb schmuck" who introduced "Baz", he did have a positive record of sorts:

"Before the early 1840s, the cane toad had been introduced into Martinique and Barbados, from French Guiana and Guyana.[47] An introduction to Jamaica was made in 1844 in an attempt to reduce the rat population.[48] Despite its failure to control the rodents, the cane toad was introduced to Puerto Rico in the early 20th century in the hope that it would counter a beetle infestation that was ravaging the sugarcane plantations. The Puerto Rican scheme was successful and halted the economic damage caused by the beetles, prompting scientists in the 1930s to promote it as an ideal solution to agricultural pests.[49]

As a result, many countries in the Pacific region emulated the lead of Puerto Rico and introduced the toad in the 1930s.[50] There are introduced populations in Australia, Florida,[51] Papua New Guinea,[52] the Philippines,[53] the Ogasawara and Ryukyu Islands of Japan,[54] most Caribbean islands,[50] Fiji and many other Pacific islands.[50] including Hawaii[55][56] Since then, the cane toad has become a pest in many host countries, and poses a serious threat to native animals.[57]


Distribution of the cane toad in Australia

Following the apparent success of the cane toad in eating the beetles that were threatening the sugarcane plantations of Puerto Rico, and the fruitful introductions into Hawaii and the Philippines, there was a strong push for the cane toad to be released in Australia to negate the pests that were ravaging the Queensland cane fields.[58] As a result, 102 toads were collected from Hawaii, equally comprising males and females, and brought to Australia.[59] After an initial release in August 1935, the Commonwealth Department of Health decided to ban future introductions until a study was conducted into the feeding habits of the toad. The study was completed in 1936 and the ban lifted, at which point large scale releases were undertaken—by March, 1937, 62,000 toadlets had been released into the wild.[58][59] The toads became firmly established in Queensland, increasing exponentially in number and extending their range into the Northern Territory and New South Wales.[20][59]

However, the toad was generally unsuccessful in reducing the targeted beetles, in part because the cane fields provided insufficient shelter for the predators during the day.[60] Since its original introduction, the cane toad has had a particularly marked effect on Australian biodiversity. The population of a number of native predatory reptiles has declined, such as the varanid lizards Varanus mertensi, V. mitchelli and V. panoptes, the land snakes Pseudechis australis and Acanthophis antarcticus, and the crocodile species Crocodylus johnstoni; in contrast, the population of the agamid lizard Amphibolurus gilberti—known to be a prey item of V. panoptes—has increased.[61]

Too bad for the Australian monitor/varanus lzards. I really like those (though a cane toad would probably make an interesting terrarium pet too). But with 92 million toads around, you can at best contain them, but never get rid of them. People smacking toads to death is unrealistic - how many are you going to kill that way, a couple of million at best -, chemicals cannot be used without affecting indigenous species, so a toad-eater (and survivor) is needed. Most efficient probably some fish that eats the tadpoles.

[Freuds_Cat]

You always have to look at the positives I guess. Lets face it Queenslanders are the world leaders in Cane Toad Golf.