26 June 2007

Take that Toad!

26 June 2007 | By Ntp

News.com.au brings the news that Canberra based company Pestat, working out of UC no less, has developed a better way to kill Cane Toads, a “toad spray” if you will.

Apparently it’s not longer recommended to use a 4 iron.

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Meconium4:42 pm 26 Jun 07

One fascinating demonstration of behavioural evolution I learnt about at uni was that birds in Queensland were learning to use the toads as a food source. Obviously the fact that the toads weren’t getting eaten is the reason for their spreading so quickly, and they weren’t getting eaten because of the poisons on their back.

Anyway, what’s starting to happen now is that the birds are flipping the toads over, eating their bellies out (which don’t secrete poison, or at least not in large enough quantities to kill the bird), and leaving the rest of the meat – but thereby killing the toad.

Nature’s cruel, but you can hardly rely on humans to solve a huge problem like this… at least until now!

Ntp9:13 am 26 Jun 07

…coming to a Canberra nightclub near you…