A competition to deplete the invasive, warty amphibian has attracted plenty of contestants – who take it deadly seriously
, it decimates predators naive to its toxins and devours just about anything it can fit in its mouth. And it is not just wreaking devastation on other species.Photograph: Glenn Campbell/The Guardian
While the toad has shown little appetite for the cane beetle that sugar growers originally hoped to control, it does consider the dung beetle a delicacy. This means more cowpats left in paddocks, exacerbating fly and parasite problems among cattle and reducing the nutrients being returned to soils. Chris Bonner, on whose farm the women hunt, speaks for almost every Queenslander when he describes his sentiment towards the big, warty amphibian.On the frontlines of its march down into New South Wales and acrossBut the toad has been established across the eastern seaboard of Queensland for decades – and so too, toad busting.Women Against Cane Toads use the fridge-freezer method to kill their quarry.But that’s a cruel technique she neither condones nor abides.
After 24 hours in the fridge, the cold-blooded creatures slip peacefully into a state of torpor. The freezer induces sleep from which they never wake. This leaves the obvious problem, though, of what to do with so many frozen toads.Our Australian morning briefing email breaks down the key national and international stories of the day and why they matterNewsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties.
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