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Rakali work out how to safely eat Cane Toads ! .... Life Finds a Way ! :) (1 Viewer)

The chilling bit of this report is that there are "billions and billions of Cane Toads" so work will have to go on to find a real solution.
 
The chilling bit of this report is that there are "billions and billions of Cane Toads" so work will have to go on to find a real solution.

Seems like an obvious application for the appropriate version of the chytrid fungus. Has anyone been doing any research on these types of biocides?
 
The chilling bit of this report is that there are "billions and billions of Cane Toads" so work will have to go on to find a real solution.

Genetically engineer/train Ferrets to deal with the toads in the same manner, then release them into the wild to do the job on a grander scale.
 
Genetically engineer/train Ferrets to deal with the toads in the same manner, then release them into the wild to do the job on a grander scale.

Sounds like a rerun of the idea that Mongoose would be great for Cane rat control in Hawaii.
Trouble was, the rats are nocturnal, the Mongoose diurnal, so they flourished side by side, at the expense of the native flora and fauna.
Ferrets are smart enough to find local warm blooded prey tastier and less bother than toxic toads.
 
Genetically engineer/train Ferrets to deal with the toads in the same manner, then release them into the wild to do the job on a grander scale.

Sounds like a rerun of the idea that Mongoose would be great for Cane rat control in Hawaii.
Trouble was, the rats are nocturnal, the Mongoose diurnal, so they flourished side by side, at the expense of the native flora and fauna.
Ferrets are smart enough to find local warm blooded prey tastier and less bother than toxic toads.
Introducing yet another foreign animal here is the same sort of thinking that got us to this point in the first place.
I also don't think a fungus is risk free enough either that it won't cause unintended collateral damage and consequences.

It is pretty chilling to think of Cane Toads in the Billions, and noble as the Rakali's efforts are they aren't going to make a dent in that or even stop the spread in the face of favourable weather events. It is a plus that at least they are not another in a long list of natives that are being decimated by the Cane Toad poison.

With the way we've treated the environment by drying an area the size of France and Germany in the Murray-Darling Basin, the Rakali are facing an uphill battle and potential local extinctions anyway (especially factoring in the predatory effects of feral Cats and Foxes) ......

Go the Rakali ! :t:





Chosun :gh:
 
Think I got you both there ... ;)


Not funny really though I have to admit, quite depressing really.

I suppose another wacky alternative would be robots - the technology and techniques for mass producing solar powered semi-intelligent, semi-autonomous Cane Toad hunting robots would presumably comfortably exist in less than ten years time at a do-able cost. On an extremely limited local scale only however in practical terms.

I guess a Rakali breeding and release program would be better.
 
Think I got you both there ... ;)


Not funny really though I have to admit, quite depressing really.

I suppose another wacky alternative would be robots - the technology and techniques for mass producing solar powered semi-intelligent, semi-autonomous Cane Toad hunting robots would presumably comfortably exist in less than ten years time at a do-able cost. On an extremely limited local scale only however in practical terms.

I guess a Rakali breeding and release program would be better.

Actually, I think that the most promising option would be to engineer a rakali variant that is dependent on the toad poison to survive, sort of like Monarch butterflies here in the US are grown on milkweed, which is toxic to almost everyone else. Not sure the genetic engineers are able to deliver that as yet, but it sure seems inevitable, for better or for worse.
 
I learned on a recent visit to the Atherton Tablelands that Quolls are being trained to avoid Cane Toads.

It at least stops the Quolls dying even if ti doesn't control the Cane Toads.
 
I learned on a recent visit to the Atherton Tablelands that Quolls are being trained to avoid Cane Toads.

It at least stops the Quolls dying even if ti doesn't control the Cane Toads.
Yes, I believe small doses of Cane Toad in a sausage mix - kind of like a big hangover that swears them off them !

I saw a doco once on Northern Quolls - such a precarious existence for the whole species ..... short lives - even shorter breeding spans - the usual introduced predators, and such low densities that some individuals live and die without ever having mated ! :eek!:

Fingers crossed ........




Chosun :gh:
 
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