SYDNEY, June 13
(UPI) -- Australian scientists say the poison invasive cane toads use to
devastate native species could be turned into a weapon against the toads
themselves.
Researchers at the
University of Sydney, in collaboration with the University of Queensland, have
determined the poison can be used as 'bait' in traps set in bodies of water to
catch toad tadpoles.
The biggest hurdle
to eliminating cane toads is that a single clutch of eggs laid at a time by one
female can number 30,000 or more, they said.
"This means
that even if you catch and kill 99 percent of the adult toads in an area, the
few that are left can produce so many offspring that before you know it you are
back to where you started -- just as many cane toads as ever," Sydney
researcher Rick Shine said.
The scientists
found secretions from the shoulder glands of dead toads can be used to bait
traps, as it is cheap, easy to obtain and highly attractive to cane toad
tadpoles but repels the tadpoles of native frogs.
"A chemical
'bait' created from the toads' poison is a real magnet for [cane] toad
tadpoles," Shine said.
"When we use
this chemical as bait in a funnel-trap we catch thousands of toad tadpoles and
almost nothing else," he said. "In one natural pond, we collected
more than 40,000 toad tadpoles in less than a week. And I think we got them all
-- over the next few weeks, not a single toad emerged from that pond."
Cane toads,
initially brought into the country to control beetles threatening sugar cane
plantations, are spreading through tropical Australia with a devastating impact
on native species, researchers said.
For a photo of Rick Shine: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2012/06/13/Australia-to-bait-and-trap-cane-toads/UPI-39571339621575/#ixzz1xxeNOmVP
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