Thursday, March 10, 2005
Caning a toad

Like all enthusiastic Aussie travellers, they have managed to get to the inspiring Kakadu National Park. But unlike the grey-nomads in their RVs on their winter sojourns, the cane toad (Bufo marinus) will not be welcome.

Munching all that’s in their path, they impact on Quolls, amphibians, birds, reptiles and insect numbers.

Whilst some amphibian experts reckon they will not make it as far south as Sydney, due to the cooler winter temperatures down there, if we churn enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from gas-guzzling urban assault vehicles, we could warm Australia's climate sufficiently to allow them to get around the entire continent.

So while one branch of government funds the research into cane toad's control or eradication, another (Queensland Transport) funds their expansion across the nation.

Cane Toads are truly the vilest of creatures. Water the garden and they come out in force. Often when the grass is damp with dew there will 3 or 4 of them perched, aloof and upright in the yard, not moving for anybody.

I try to do my bit for reducing waste. I recycle everything possible and compost all my green waste. My wheelie bin only needs emptying once every month. As a result, cane toads have happily infested the compost heap, feasting on the multitude of bugs and worms employed to munch through what gets thrown on.

I take some pride that my children have not grown up assuming it is OK to simply kill or torture animals. They have grasped the omnivorous concept that killing animals humanely for eating is acceptable but commonly declare that you ‘can’t just kill animals.’ They don’t even tread on ants outside the house.

This attitude can only be instilled in children through familial socialisation. If I had taught them that it was customary to be cruel, I am sure they would be so. Studies have shown that juvenile murderers often have a history of cruelty to animals, so all being well, neither James or Matthew will end up on a homicide rap.

Many an evening, I have taken stance, 5-Wood in hand, ready to swing at Mr Toad.

He has forlornly squatted there, absolutely hapless (or just arrogant, I don’t know), waiting to take a balls-eye view of a “great golf shot”.

But yet I cannot bring myself to do it. These are pests, ecological timebombs, devastating indigenous flora and fauna and breeding out of control. Yet whacking it with a 5-Wood is cruel.

I think they now take advantage of my sensitivity and when they feel the cool touch of golf-club up their backside, they continue to sit there, gloating at my incapacity to be cruel.

That said, I am never above a little routine harassment. My favourites are the hose on maxi-power and rolling soccer balls at them; but best of all is chasing them round the yard with a remote control car.

But on another level, you cannot help but admire these creatures. Just 3,000 of them were introduced to a sugar cane farm in Queensland in 1935 to eat cane beetle larvae. In just 70 years they have been so successful in breeding and eating they have caused havoc across millions and millions of square kilometres of an entire continent. They are tough, resilient and proud.

They originated in South America. To have produced such a robust creature it must have been a tough neighbourhood; remember this animal has bullied its way across a foreign land of enormous size and biodiversity. At the same time that another invasive pest – the Fire Ant – has struggled in the face of aggressive and voracious indigenous ants, the cane toad has ploughed the road clear of all other amphibious cousins.

Queensland has a disturbing relationship with the cane toad. Rarely is a living animal treated with such impunity (apart from in the poultry industry). It has been the object of viscous vigilante campaigns that have been barbaric and sadistic. Undoubtedly this rueful attitude towards the cane toad would have spilled over into treating other living creatures with vitriol.

Rightly, they are in the Premier League of threats to nature and biodiversity. On a continent that has evolved in isolation, like rabbits, foxes, mice and dingos before, the cane toads will upset the ecosystem balance and cause the extinction of a number of local species. At face value, they have no right to be here. And yes, they are truly ugly creatures.

But I was cautioned to think again, when someone said to me “do not be cruel, it is not their fault they are here”. From that perspective, cane toads are simply another victim of human’s anthropocentric arrogance – assuming we can tinker with nature to maximise our own output with a perfect understanding of the consequences.

There is NEVER any excuse to be cruel to a living animal.

$30 million dollars was ploughed into eradicating the Fire Ant from South East Queensland. The Fire Ant was a direct threat to agricultural profit so as a result the resources of the nation were poured in to achieve results.

The cane toad, despite being brought in to control an agricultural pest, is not such a direct threat to business yet has been a huge threat to biodiversity. As a result it has been allowed to continue spread across Australia with only cursory attention.

Most people would prefer to see the cane toad controlled, if not eradicated. Humane trapping and freezing is unlikely to achieve this; it is estimate that cane toads outnumber humans in Australia 5:1. Best bet lies with CSIRO research into genetic manipulation. If genes essential to the toad’s development or reproduction can be identified and manipulated, cane toads could possibly be eradicated completely.

But inventing a techno-fix to correct prior human cock-ups with nature has its own chequered history.

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