Oh Sure Everyone Blames the Toads!
Taken from:http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18165281%255E29277,00.html
Invading cane toad evolving: study February 16, 2006
AUSTRALIA'S hated cane toads are evolving - growing faster, longer legs as they rampage through the nation's tropics.Researchers have clocked the toxic pests hopping up to two kilometres in a single night, or more than 50km a year - five times quicker than their predecessors travelled in the 1940s to 1960s.
"There is very clear evidence that toads are evolving rapidly," said Professor Rick Shine, from the University of Sydney's School of Biological Sciences.
Scientists have been examining the warty pests at Fogg Dam, 60km east of Darwin, for a year, attaching radio transmitters to track how far and fast they can travel.
Their research, published today in the scientific journal Nature, found the first toads invading an area now have longer, faster legs - which make up 45 per cent of their body length. When the cane toad was first introduced in Queensland 70 years ago - in a disastrous attempt to control insects in sugar cane fields - its legs made up about 35-40 per cent of its body length,
Prof Shine said. "Frogs and toads generally are slow moving little creatures," Prof Shine said. "(But) our toads are moving north west, and they are just going as fast as they can."
He said it was possible toads were evolving to be faster because there was some advantage to being first to invade an area - either juicier grubs or less competition for food.
Cane toads have marched across Queensland, northern NSW, and the NT, poisoning millions of native animals including in world heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.
They now cover more than a million square kilometres of tropical and subtropical Australia. The report came as the NT renewed its attack on the toad, which is fast approaching Darwin. Locals are being urged to check their yards and nearby parks for cane toads on March 14 - the official "Not in My Backyard Day" of action.
There has been fierce debate over the best way to kill a cane toad since federal MP Dave Tollner last year called on locals to smash them with golf clubs and turn the eradication of toads into a new blood sport.
The RSPCA has urged locals to wipe hemorrhoid cream on the toad before humanely freezing them, and community group FrogWatch is mulching up carcasses into Australia's first toad garden fertiliser.
My opinion:
Why is the human race so stupid? Are we honestly "smart" enough to actually let loose a swarm of freaking toads on a continent just to get rid of a few bugs? I think its amazing how a toad is evolving and yet the human mind has not evolved past smashing anything that annoys us with a club. WE ARE NOT CAVEMEN! First, we should never have releashed them onto Australia, second we should not smash them with clubs, and third this is the Australians own damn fault. They brought this upon themselves and they should deal with it in a more humane way than smacking a toad with a golf club or spreading hemorrhoid cream on them and freezing them. I dont know what your definition of humane is but that certainly is not mine.
And they call what they are doing funny names like Not In My Back Yard and FrogWatch. That is just sad. Oooh not in my back yard you are a scary toad that my ancestors released on our lands and may poison my pets. People make me sick. And then they have the nerve to call it FrogWatch??? Really now, the frogs are not suicide bombers. Oh my god watch out! Its a creepy frog! kill it! kill it! And then you Aussies hit it with a freaking Golf club. What is wrong with the world? We talk about turning frogs into fertaliser because they are doing what every animal does: eats, sleeps, moves.
What is the world coming to? I feel bad that my fellow man would be as stupid as to do something as this. I think somehow, we are DeEvolving, keeping our physical structure but our mental structure is diminishing severely. We are more interested in killing toads and tracking how fast they can go than thinking about the frogs feelings. I wonder what the frog thought when a man hit it with a golf club... Probably something along the lines of: "I'm hungry, I think I'll go eat a grub" Smack. End of it's life. Dead.
We humans care more about pointless things like how fast a toad can hop than the meaning of the toads life. I bet that toad had a family you sick person. And do you think the toad thought it was doing anything wrong? of course it didn't. It was just living out it's normal life and we kill it because of that. That is messed up. I am very appalled by this article.
They should trap the toads and relocate them somewhere else. This would be a lot more humane that the "bloodsport" they currently have going on. Call it the Toad Relocation Act instead of the Not In My Back Yard or FrogWatch days.
Invading cane toad evolving: study February 16, 2006
AUSTRALIA'S hated cane toads are evolving - growing faster, longer legs as they rampage through the nation's tropics.Researchers have clocked the toxic pests hopping up to two kilometres in a single night, or more than 50km a year - five times quicker than their predecessors travelled in the 1940s to 1960s.
"There is very clear evidence that toads are evolving rapidly," said Professor Rick Shine, from the University of Sydney's School of Biological Sciences.
Scientists have been examining the warty pests at Fogg Dam, 60km east of Darwin, for a year, attaching radio transmitters to track how far and fast they can travel.
Their research, published today in the scientific journal Nature, found the first toads invading an area now have longer, faster legs - which make up 45 per cent of their body length. When the cane toad was first introduced in Queensland 70 years ago - in a disastrous attempt to control insects in sugar cane fields - its legs made up about 35-40 per cent of its body length,
Prof Shine said. "Frogs and toads generally are slow moving little creatures," Prof Shine said. "(But) our toads are moving north west, and they are just going as fast as they can."
He said it was possible toads were evolving to be faster because there was some advantage to being first to invade an area - either juicier grubs or less competition for food.
Cane toads have marched across Queensland, northern NSW, and the NT, poisoning millions of native animals including in world heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.
They now cover more than a million square kilometres of tropical and subtropical Australia. The report came as the NT renewed its attack on the toad, which is fast approaching Darwin. Locals are being urged to check their yards and nearby parks for cane toads on March 14 - the official "Not in My Backyard Day" of action.
There has been fierce debate over the best way to kill a cane toad since federal MP Dave Tollner last year called on locals to smash them with golf clubs and turn the eradication of toads into a new blood sport.
The RSPCA has urged locals to wipe hemorrhoid cream on the toad before humanely freezing them, and community group FrogWatch is mulching up carcasses into Australia's first toad garden fertiliser.
My opinion:
Why is the human race so stupid? Are we honestly "smart" enough to actually let loose a swarm of freaking toads on a continent just to get rid of a few bugs? I think its amazing how a toad is evolving and yet the human mind has not evolved past smashing anything that annoys us with a club. WE ARE NOT CAVEMEN! First, we should never have releashed them onto Australia, second we should not smash them with clubs, and third this is the Australians own damn fault. They brought this upon themselves and they should deal with it in a more humane way than smacking a toad with a golf club or spreading hemorrhoid cream on them and freezing them. I dont know what your definition of humane is but that certainly is not mine.
And they call what they are doing funny names like Not In My Back Yard and FrogWatch. That is just sad. Oooh not in my back yard you are a scary toad that my ancestors released on our lands and may poison my pets. People make me sick. And then they have the nerve to call it FrogWatch??? Really now, the frogs are not suicide bombers. Oh my god watch out! Its a creepy frog! kill it! kill it! And then you Aussies hit it with a freaking Golf club. What is wrong with the world? We talk about turning frogs into fertaliser because they are doing what every animal does: eats, sleeps, moves.
What is the world coming to? I feel bad that my fellow man would be as stupid as to do something as this. I think somehow, we are DeEvolving, keeping our physical structure but our mental structure is diminishing severely. We are more interested in killing toads and tracking how fast they can go than thinking about the frogs feelings. I wonder what the frog thought when a man hit it with a golf club... Probably something along the lines of: "I'm hungry, I think I'll go eat a grub" Smack. End of it's life. Dead.
We humans care more about pointless things like how fast a toad can hop than the meaning of the toads life. I bet that toad had a family you sick person. And do you think the toad thought it was doing anything wrong? of course it didn't. It was just living out it's normal life and we kill it because of that. That is messed up. I am very appalled by this article.
They should trap the toads and relocate them somewhere else. This would be a lot more humane that the "bloodsport" they currently have going on. Call it the Toad Relocation Act instead of the Not In My Back Yard or FrogWatch days.
posted by Bryan Posey-Weekly at 5:45 PM
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