illuminating science

Oh, sorry, that should have been the other way around - if researchers from University of Queensland in Australia are successful, all toads will be male. Cane toads are one of Australias worst introduced species, originally brought in to eat the cane beetle that was destroying sugar cane crops but instead deciding they liked the taste of green tree frogs better instead. These ugly little suckers are often found squashed on the roads at night (often accompanied by swerve marks…) and toad hunts are quite popular in some parts (particularly near the rainforest areas, where on certain nights a bucket of toads can be swapped for a beer or two. Sometimes quit literally, actually - the beer comes out of the freezer and the toads go in! It might sound a little unhumane, but…) And despite some reports suggesting things aren’t quite so bad as we fear, there’s no doubt that cane toads are taking over many habitats originally reserved for native species.

The latest idea for disposing of these toads, however, is to genetically toads that will only give birth to male tadpoles. (Or rather, they give birth to both, but the female morph into males.) The idea would be that if enough of these toads were released, they would be pass on their genes to the rest of the population, eventually resulting in an all male toad population unable to find mates, which would then gracefully die out. Unhappily, I’m sure (”I guess that’s sad for the male cane toads,” says Prof. Koopman on their enforced celibacy), but better than some sort of mass poison. And before you comment about celibacy not being an inherited characteristic, I think it does work out - those males that do find a mate will pass on their genes, and so forth. The question, however, is whether they can dominate over the rest of the population ultimately, but I imagine with a large enough initial population combined with the fact that the modified toads produce twice as many males (since no females!) as their counterpart.

Anyway, seems I’m on a bit of a pest thing - first locusts, now cane toads! Not to mention balloon animals and burglars!