wildlife
Australia goes toad hunting
It was supposed to fight pests – now it is being hunted itself: the cane toad is a threat to native animals in Australia. photo
© picture alliance / Monika Skolimowska/dpa
Cane toads are considered a pest in Australia. Now the annual big hunt for the warty creatures is starting again. The organizers promise “fun and action” – but also call for humane killing.
Cane toads (scientifically Bufo marinus) originally come from South America. They were introduced to Australia in 1935 with the idea of using them as pest controllers in sugar cane plantations. But the project backfired badly: the animals multiplied massively and became a plague. They are omnivores and will attack anything they can fit into their mouths. They are mostly active at night. Because many Australian animals have no resistance to the toads’ venom, some mammals, snakes and reptiles are critically endangered because of the invasion.
According to hunt organizer Watergum, the toads live to be around ten years old. Females can produce up to 35,000 eggs with each brood. At least 200 million of the creatures now populate the country. “This means that every cane toad removed really counts!” emphasize the conservationists. The animals have spread from the state of Queensland to the Northern Territory, Western Australia and along the northeast coast of New South Wales, according to the New South Wales government’s “Cane Toad Control Handbook”.
Humane killing in the refrigerator
The hunt is full of action and great fun, says Watergum. But it is important to kill the animals in a “humane way”. There are numerous instructions for this on the Internet. “Cane toads deserve to be treated kindly and humanely; after all, it’s not their fault they’re on the wrong continent,” Watergum writes on its website.
The best method is to place a container with the toads in a refrigerator for 24 hours. “During this cooling period, the toads peacefully fall into torpor, a semi-comatose state similar to hibernation.” They would then no longer feel pain. The toads are then put in a freezer for another 24 hours and die. Immediate freezing without prior cooling could cause significant pain for the animals, the organization warns.