Wireless telemetry tracks cane toad onslaught in Australia

By John Cox, NetworkWorld.com, 07/18/06

Wireless packs strapped to 50 of the 4-pound cane toads show the amphibian pests are spreading faster through Australia by traveling along roads and highways.

The telemetry data shows that the toads, like people, move faster along and beside roadways than through thick vegetation. The toads appear to seek out the roadways, lie over during the day and take up their march at night.

Cane toads were brought Down Under from Hawaii in the 1930's to control a beetle ravaging Australian sugar cane crops. The toads grow to the size of a large dinner plate and can weigh up to 4.5 pounds. They have no predators, and parts of their bodies are studded with rows of warts, which have milky poison called bufotoxin, which is powerful enough to kill snakes, lizards and other animals, including pet dogs.

The beetle control project failed and the toads have been spreading ever since. Now, they seem to be spreading faster.

"The roads provide long, linear corridors of open habitat that are well-suited for animals traveling long distances and the findings strongly suggest that Australian cane toads are using them to hasten their push into new territory, the researchers write."

Australians have a love-hate relationship with the toads, as a 1988 documentary by Mark Lewis made clear, with deadpan hilarity. Recently, scientists have proposed a project to turn female cane toad tadpoles into males. They might still have sex but at least wouldn't reproduce.

The new research suggests a more direct and one must admit a more satisfying way to control the toads -- by modifying roadside areas with dense vegetation or other barriers thus "forcing toads onto the road itself, thereby increasing their vulnerability to vehicular traffic."

Splat.

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