One of the most successful invasive species on the planet
March 28, 2017 4:33 PM Subscribe
"In South Florida, cane toads are so numerous that they seem to be dropping from the sky. They're overtaking parking lots and backyards, can weigh almost six pounds, and pack enough poison to kill pets. Why the surge?" A long article at Outside about an increasing population of cane toads in South Florida.
The article notes that Australia has a particularly bad cane toad infestation, and links to this Washington Post article - Australia is battling a killer toad by turning the frog’s own toxin against it: "Today, the cane toads are described as though the animals are an invading army, with a frog “front” spreading like a stain across the northern Australian coastline."
The rapid spread of Australia's cane toad pests (BBC): "Australia has a long and depressing history of inadvertently introducing wrecking ball species as pets and livestock, or for sport. Examples include foxes, pigs and rabbits, goats, camels and cats. Invasive plants and fish have also had a dramatic effect on native flora and fauna, but it is the cane toad that is widely reviled above all else."
The Australian Museum's information page on cane toads.
Previously on Mefi Music: Song of the Cane Toad
The article notes that Australia has a particularly bad cane toad infestation, and links to this Washington Post article - Australia is battling a killer toad by turning the frog’s own toxin against it: "Today, the cane toads are described as though the animals are an invading army, with a frog “front” spreading like a stain across the northern Australian coastline."
The rapid spread of Australia's cane toad pests (BBC): "Australia has a long and depressing history of inadvertently introducing wrecking ball species as pets and livestock, or for sport. Examples include foxes, pigs and rabbits, goats, camels and cats. Invasive plants and fish have also had a dramatic effect on native flora and fauna, but it is the cane toad that is widely reviled above all else."
The Australian Museum's information page on cane toads.
Previously on Mefi Music: Song of the Cane Toad
Ugh, bloody cane toads. You can run over one with your car and it'll just suck its guts back in and hop off. Nothing eats them. There are humane ways you are encouraged to catch/dispose of them. There are a lot of other ways too.
Fortunately during our tenure in Far North Queensland our dog was content only to chase them, and never to eat them.
posted by olinerd at 5:06 PM on March 28, 2017
Fortunately during our tenure in Far North Queensland our dog was content only to chase them, and never to eat them.
posted by olinerd at 5:06 PM on March 28, 2017
You are possibly remembering Barry's 1983 interview with then-governor of Florida, Bob Graham, who offered extremely practical advice on coping with Cane toads (involving a BB gun).
I absolutely believe Dave Barry when he says the interview is 100% true. (I just now google-fact-checked Hamilton Distan, and that part seems to be accurate).
This is still my all-time favorite interview with a governor, ever.
I grew up in South Florida, and the toads were indeed pernicious and omnipresent, especially in the spring, when there were a bajillion black polywogs in the Duck Pond (awesome!), and a few weeks later, a bajillion pinky-nail-sized toads hopping through the lawns (ewww!).
It was fun though, to toss the tiny toads into the center of the pond, where they would lie motionless on the surface for a moment, then swim like mad toward the shore, only to be suddenly devoured by unseen large fish that defied any fishing rod.
Wow. Lotta memories on this lane...
posted by LEGO Damashii at 5:17 PM on March 28, 2017 [9 favorites]
I absolutely believe Dave Barry when he says the interview is 100% true. (I just now google-fact-checked Hamilton Distan, and that part seems to be accurate).
This is still my all-time favorite interview with a governor, ever.
I grew up in South Florida, and the toads were indeed pernicious and omnipresent, especially in the spring, when there were a bajillion black polywogs in the Duck Pond (awesome!), and a few weeks later, a bajillion pinky-nail-sized toads hopping through the lawns (ewww!).
It was fun though, to toss the tiny toads into the center of the pond, where they would lie motionless on the surface for a moment, then swim like mad toward the shore, only to be suddenly devoured by unseen large fish that defied any fishing rod.
Wow. Lotta memories on this lane...
posted by LEGO Damashii at 5:17 PM on March 28, 2017 [9 favorites]
A classic 1988 documentary from Australia: Cane Toads: An Unnatural History
posted by Going To Maine at 5:27 PM on March 28, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 5:27 PM on March 28, 2017 [16 favorites]
Maybe it's nature's way of saying it's done with Florida, and the rest of the US is on notice?
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:32 PM on March 28, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:32 PM on March 28, 2017 [5 favorites]
The WaPo article suggests that the "leading invasion edge" of the toads are behaviorally different then the toads in the original center of the spread, are they genetically distinct?
I ask because Australia's been practicing biological warfare on rabbits since the Forties, first with Myxomatosis, then RHD (rabbit hemmoragic disease). It always partially works, but then the resistant ones keep breeding.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:35 PM on March 28, 2017
I ask because Australia's been practicing biological warfare on rabbits since the Forties, first with Myxomatosis, then RHD (rabbit hemmoragic disease). It always partially works, but then the resistant ones keep breeding.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:35 PM on March 28, 2017
Do they eat roaches? Because if they eat roaches I'm sure we can come up with some kind of deal.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 6:43 PM on March 28, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Huffy Puffy at 6:43 PM on March 28, 2017 [7 favorites]
do they still boot people for smuggling these things into Australia?
posted by indubitable at 6:53 PM on March 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by indubitable at 6:53 PM on March 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
The Pluto Gangsta - it's hard to know as the WaPo article refers to an interview that's subscriber only. But I imagine if it was anything more than just observations of behavioural changes then they would have expressed that explicitly?
My mother's preferred method of getting rid of cane toads (in Daintree in far north Queensland) was collecting them in plastic bags and putting them in the freezer until they succumbed to the cold. It is quite alarming to innocently open the freezer and have a plastic bag lurch towards you.
posted by fever-trees at 7:00 PM on March 28, 2017 [16 favorites]
My mother's preferred method of getting rid of cane toads (in Daintree in far north Queensland) was collecting them in plastic bags and putting them in the freezer until they succumbed to the cold. It is quite alarming to innocently open the freezer and have a plastic bag lurch towards you.
posted by fever-trees at 7:00 PM on March 28, 2017 [16 favorites]
do they still boot people for smuggling these things into Australia?
It's punishable by transportation to a penal colony.
posted by ocschwar at 7:06 PM on March 28, 2017 [7 favorites]
It's punishable by transportation to a penal colony.
posted by ocschwar at 7:06 PM on March 28, 2017 [7 favorites]
A classic 1988 documentary from Australia: Cane Toads: An Unnatural History
You beat me to it! It's a documentary, but with a cheeky sense of humor. I second the recommendation.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 7:13 PM on March 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
You beat me to it! It's a documentary, but with a cheeky sense of humor. I second the recommendation.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 7:13 PM on March 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
Cane toads have these things going for them:... and they are highly poisonous (their venom, carried in glands in their shoulders, kills animals, and could kill a person, though so far no Floridian is known to have been poisoned by it).Do not test Florida Man.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:20 PM on March 28, 2017 [19 favorites]
Hold my beer.
posted by ocschwar at 7:48 PM on March 28, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by ocschwar at 7:48 PM on March 28, 2017 [12 favorites]
I'm not an especially phobic person however even as a lad I found cane toads repulsive and was afraid of them.
Unfortunately, the pond dad put in our front yard became the stage for many a bacchanalian cane toad orgy. In an effort to stem this supernova of warty love, dad would catch the toads and then dispose of them humanely - the recommended way being to put them in the freezer (we had a chest freezer in the garage).
Dad, being the no-nonsense country guy that he was, thought the best way to cure me of this "aversion" would be to make me regularly carry a shopping bag full of live, jumping, toads, out to the freezer to dispose of them. Needless to say, it did not have the planned effect. I have many a vivid memory of 8 year old Smoke sobbing and shuffling out to the garage holding a twitching shopping bag as far away from my body as possible (a disappointingly small distance when measured by the length of an 8 year old's arms).
I have a visceral stab of disgust/fear even now, nearly 30 years later, when I see a cane toad - which is funny as growing up in the country I regularly encountered animals far more deadly: brown snakes, black snakes, funnel web spiders, red backs etc. None of them bother/ed me as much as cane toads.
posted by smoke at 7:48 PM on March 28, 2017 [13 favorites]
Unfortunately, the pond dad put in our front yard became the stage for many a bacchanalian cane toad orgy. In an effort to stem this supernova of warty love, dad would catch the toads and then dispose of them humanely - the recommended way being to put them in the freezer (we had a chest freezer in the garage).
Dad, being the no-nonsense country guy that he was, thought the best way to cure me of this "aversion" would be to make me regularly carry a shopping bag full of live, jumping, toads, out to the freezer to dispose of them. Needless to say, it did not have the planned effect. I have many a vivid memory of 8 year old Smoke sobbing and shuffling out to the garage holding a twitching shopping bag as far away from my body as possible (a disappointingly small distance when measured by the length of an 8 year old's arms).
I have a visceral stab of disgust/fear even now, nearly 30 years later, when I see a cane toad - which is funny as growing up in the country I regularly encountered animals far more deadly: brown snakes, black snakes, funnel web spiders, red backs etc. None of them bother/ed me as much as cane toads.
posted by smoke at 7:48 PM on March 28, 2017 [13 favorites]
Many Australians still do own guns.
Untrue. Many guns are still owned by some Australians, however.
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:53 PM on March 28, 2017 [6 favorites]
Untrue. Many guns are still owned by some Australians, however.
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:53 PM on March 28, 2017 [6 favorites]
And yeah, the cruelty that Australians (especially children) demonstrate towards cane toads is absolutely mind-numbing.
posted by turbid dahlia at 8:00 PM on March 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by turbid dahlia at 8:00 PM on March 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
pythons probably could eat the cane toads, but the pythons are happily consuming endangered species out in the swamps, while the cane toads are happily eating pizza in the Winn Dixie parking lot.
jesus, they eat rat poison too? Florida Man deserves these things.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 8:19 PM on March 28, 2017 [5 favorites]
jesus, they eat rat poison too? Florida Man deserves these things.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 8:19 PM on March 28, 2017 [5 favorites]
There are a lot of pythons (and other types of snakes) in cane toad country in Australia and they don't make a dent in the population at all. They poison snakes too. Cane toads are really little bastards.
posted by olinerd at 8:39 PM on March 28, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by olinerd at 8:39 PM on March 28, 2017 [3 favorites]
I lost track years ago of the number of reasons to stay away from the State of Florida. Anyway, this adds to the list.
posted by kozad at 8:43 PM on March 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by kozad at 8:43 PM on March 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
From the Outside article: "of course the number of humans in Florida is likely to increase." Um, no?
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:01 PM on March 28, 2017
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:01 PM on March 28, 2017
"The WaPo article suggests that the "leading invasion edge" of the toads are behaviorally different then the toads in the original center of the spread, are they genetically distinct?"
At least one Australian researcher, Rick Shine, reckons there are morphological differences between individuals at the dispersal front vs already settled territory - though as far as I'm aware he's not claiming there's any great genetic distinction, merely that there's phenotypic adapability or maybe simply spatial sorting of morphologies due to environmental factors.
Or, very simply, all cane toads have the genetic possibility to e.g. be born able jump further. However, in already settled areas there's not much selective pressure for it so they don't, while at an invasion front there is - or at least it favours individuals who are already born with the ability ("to boldly go where no toad has gone before…"). Once the front has moved on, the jumping ability of the population that has settled the area tends to revert back to the median.
I don't entirely buy many of Rick's arguments for various reasons, but that one seems sound enough on the face of it…
posted by Pinback at 9:52 PM on March 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
At least one Australian researcher, Rick Shine, reckons there are morphological differences between individuals at the dispersal front vs already settled territory - though as far as I'm aware he's not claiming there's any great genetic distinction, merely that there's phenotypic adapability or maybe simply spatial sorting of morphologies due to environmental factors.
Or, very simply, all cane toads have the genetic possibility to e.g. be born able jump further. However, in already settled areas there's not much selective pressure for it so they don't, while at an invasion front there is - or at least it favours individuals who are already born with the ability ("to boldly go where no toad has gone before…"). Once the front has moved on, the jumping ability of the population that has settled the area tends to revert back to the median.
I don't entirely buy many of Rick's arguments for various reasons, but that one seems sound enough on the face of it…
posted by Pinback at 9:52 PM on March 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
I seem to remember Dave Barry writing about these guys years ago, but couldn't track it down.A large specimen is featured as a comic device in his novel Big Trouble. He's probably written about them elsewhere, too, but there's definitely one that plays a part in that novel.
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:10 AM on March 29, 2017
The Outside article kind of buries the answer to their question -- the cane toads are probably expanding because they can flourish in human-made environments, unlike most wild animals. Same with the Eurasian collared dove, apparently. (And unlike Burmese pythons in Florida, which do very well in the wild.)
posted by clew at 12:49 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by clew at 12:49 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Oh man, I was there when Bacchanalian Cane Toad Orgy opened for Supernova of Warty Love. A night I'll never forget. Rumor is that Carl Hiaasen's next novel is all about it.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 2:40 AM on March 29, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 2:40 AM on March 29, 2017 [6 favorites]
Ugh. The only animal to make me briefly consider animal cruelty, at a camping site near Cairns where the ground was covered in them.
posted by harriet vane at 5:20 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by harriet vane at 5:20 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
From the Outside article: "of course the number of humans in Florida is likely to increase." Um, no? posted by Halloween Jack at 9:01 PM on March 28 [+] [!]
What do you mean? Florida population is projected to increase, heck, the populations of mississippi and louisiana are increasing, and many of us are leaving for Florida...
posted by eustatic at 7:30 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
What do you mean? Florida population is projected to increase, heck, the populations of mississippi and louisiana are increasing, and many of us are leaving for Florida...
posted by eustatic at 7:30 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Ribbit! (Swallows a fly, burps contentedly, crawls off.)
posted by cstross at 7:36 AM on March 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by cstross at 7:36 AM on March 29, 2017 [2 favorites]
All I want to know is, can I lick them?
posted by bigbigdog at 7:43 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by bigbigdog at 7:43 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
A classic 1988 documentary from Australia: Cane Toads: An Unnatural History
"Sometimes I call him Greenie, and sometimes I call him Reddie. Sometimes I call him Cane Almost-Toad. Sometimes I call him Dairy Queen."
All I want to know is, can I lick them?
You can smoke 'em.
posted by dersins at 9:07 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
"Sometimes I call him Greenie, and sometimes I call him Reddie. Sometimes I call him Cane Almost-Toad. Sometimes I call him Dairy Queen."
All I want to know is, can I lick them?
You can smoke 'em.
posted by dersins at 9:07 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
"Sometimes I call him Greenie, and sometimes I call him Reddie. Sometimes I call him Cane Almost-Toad. Sometimes I call him Dairy Queen."
As luck would have it, that link comes just a few short seconds after my favorite moment: "He's dancing!"
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:16 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
As luck would have it, that link comes just a few short seconds after my favorite moment: "He's dancing!"
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:16 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Metafilter: supernova of warty love
The collared dove arrived in my city (PNW) in the last few years; there's a whole new repertoire of bird calls here now.
posted by jokeefe at 9:28 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
The collared dove arrived in my city (PNW) in the last few years; there's a whole new repertoire of bird calls here now.
posted by jokeefe at 9:28 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Toad Proof Fence
posted by freecellwizard at 10:12 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by freecellwizard at 10:12 AM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Florida: an Australia wanabe.
Try harder, Florida, you don't have nearly enough deadly critters unless you count humans; then you win.
posted by mightshould at 6:15 PM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
Try harder, Florida, you don't have nearly enough deadly critters unless you count humans; then you win.
posted by mightshould at 6:15 PM on March 29, 2017 [1 favorite]
North Australian rural resident here.
Toads moved in a while back, and killed off just about every native reptile big enough to eat them. Have not seen a goanna around here for years, used to see them nearly every day, including some monsters. More or less wiped them out locally. Some of the birds of prey took a big hit too, though they are recovering, presumably because they are smarter than lizards and have adapted faster.
I have no hesitation or remorse in killing the ecosystem wrecking fuckers. Helps that they are as ugly and evil looking as sin.
Sadly, Australia has a terrible track record of introduced species, of all types. Besides the effects of the toad, the ecosystem across the north of Australia is going to look very different in a few decades because of introduced pastoral grasses that are proving impossible to control and are dominating native flora.
posted by Pouteria at 2:21 AM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
Toads moved in a while back, and killed off just about every native reptile big enough to eat them. Have not seen a goanna around here for years, used to see them nearly every day, including some monsters. More or less wiped them out locally. Some of the birds of prey took a big hit too, though they are recovering, presumably because they are smarter than lizards and have adapted faster.
I have no hesitation or remorse in killing the ecosystem wrecking fuckers. Helps that they are as ugly and evil looking as sin.
Sadly, Australia has a terrible track record of introduced species, of all types. Besides the effects of the toad, the ecosystem across the north of Australia is going to look very different in a few decades because of introduced pastoral grasses that are proving impossible to control and are dominating native flora.
posted by Pouteria at 2:21 AM on March 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
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