The cane toad was
introduced to Australia from Hawaii in 1935 to combat the grayback beetle
which was laying waste to the sugar cane industry (Lewis, 1987).
The plan was that the toads would eat the beetle and nothing else, since
the Australian environment was so foreign to them. Unfortunately,
grayback beetles live in the cane, not on the ground around it. This
being the case, the cane toads were unable to reach their intended food
supply and the grayback beetles remained unharmed and plentiful (NBII,
2001).
The toads began to eat everything
they could get their mouths on except for the grayback beetles they were
intended to eat. Cane toads have threatened many native species that
they use for prey. Also, the toads have pushed other, less hardy
species out of viable habitats due to their voracious eating and mating
habits.
While many eradication attempts
by both the government and overzealous Australian citizens (one gentleman
finds it therapeutic to run as many as he can over with his car as one
was responsible for the death of his cat (Lewis, 1987)), the toads are
still going strong. But there is some relatively good news.
The population of cane toads has begun to increase at a slower rate than
has been recorded in years passed. Perhaps this is because the habitats
locations in Australia have reached their saturation point and cannot support
a much larger population of these pesky amphibians. |
