The Frog vs the Toad
Possibly good news today, with a study showing that native Australian frogs might be holding their own against the infamous (and ugly!) cane toad, an species introduced into Australia to eat the sugar cane bug but which proved to enjoy the taste of frogs more. It’s slowly been spreading across the country, and scientists held, and indeed still hold, grave fears the native species it displaces. A recent study, however, seems to show that native frog populations have not been decimated, as feared, and perhaps things aren’t quite as bad as they seemed.
Other researchers, howeve, remain unconvinced - apparently we don’t really have good numbers of what frog populations should be in these areas, and so don’t know what the baseline is for comparison! Data should be coming in shortly from Kakadu National Park, which the toads are just now starting to reach despite everyone’s best efforts, and that will hopefully provide a better idea of what’s going on.
Although the story sounds like positive news, I feel a little like I do every time a study suggests that global warming isn’t as bad as we thought - all the other data points towards Really Bad News (TM), and if people become complacent or worse yet, start to disregard all the other data, then if the danger does turn out to be real, we’re in big trouble.
That said, toad-wacking is almost a national passtime in some parts of Australia, so I don’t think people are going to ease up on the little buggers any time soon!
[…] 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. […]