Radical Reptiles - W.A.

It breaks my heart to know that these horrible pests are heading into WA.  The damage they have done in Queensland and the NT is irrepairable and we have to stop them before they get here.

The cane toad was introduced into Queensland back in the 30's to combat the sugarcane beetle, it soon became apparent that they were having no effect on the sugarcane beetle.  Cane toads can't jump very high so they did not eat the cane beetles which stayed up on the upper stalks of the cane plants. At the time of year when the beetle's larvae were emerging no toads were present to eat the larvae. So the cane toad, ended up having no impact on the cane beetles at all and farmers had to go back to the use of chemicals to kill the beetle.  The people who introduced the Cane toad must be turning in their graves for the massive damage introducing the Cane Toad has caused to our unique ecosystem and fauna, although they cannot of known this at the time it has certainly made the authorities rethink introducing anything else,  and do their homework before they do.

The following information is from the Watch out for Cane Toads pamphlet produced by the Department of Agriculture and CALM.

Where did it come from?
The cane toad (Bufo marinus) is native to south and central America and has been introduced to many countries including northern and easter Australia.  It is one of the world's worst 100 evasive alien species.
Why is it a problem?
 Cane toads and their eggs are poisonous to humans, domestic and native animals. Cane toads have a destructive effect on beneficial insects and can pollute water holes, drinking troughs, swimming pools, and block drains.

I think that is depressing enough check out CALMs website at http://www.naturebase.net or the Dept of Agricultures at http://www.agric.wa.gov.au 
Check out this page for more information, great for school projects http://www.fdrproject.org/pages/toads.htm

The saddest thing of all about the canetoad is, it kills everything that tries to eat it, we even get sick if we touch it.

There is only one natural enemy of the Cane Toad and that is the Keelback snake that is found in the northern part of WA,  the only problem is that the Keelback can only eat small cane toads and cannot tolerate the poison of the larger ones. 

I have also heard that the crow in Queensland has learnt to flip the Cane Toad on its back to eat it, that way it doesnt get poisoned by it, but how long has it taken for that to occur?  Our native fauna could be extinct before they are able to adapt.

It has been found that the Northern Carpet Python (morelia spilota variegata) maybe the only python that will survive the onslaught, because it is arboreal and doesnt eat frogs, but what if it eats a bird that ate a cane toad taddy, what will happen then.

We as a community need to stop the Cane toad any way we can and the Department of Agriculture and CALM (Now DEC) have started a progrom for us to help with. 

CALL 1800 084 881 if you see a cane toad in WA. Ugly critters aren't they!