Marguerite's Blog

Bufo marinus.

Posted on 11 Jul, 2008 8 comments

Not the prettiest creature we’ve seen, but he can’t help himself of course. This fellar has been introduced into Australia from South America some time ago to help eradicate a certain beetle which was destroying the sugarcane. The early settlers here did not have a clue about the impact importing flora and fauna would have. If they could have looked into the future they would have thought twice. Not only did the attempt fail, these little fellar became one of the biggest threads to our wildlife in the years to come. The worst thing is: they are toxic. They have yellow lobes above their cheecks which contain toxin, so much, that it can kill a dog if he would ingest the toad. Besides their toxidity they are a competition to our lovely native frogs because they search for the same food. Even the small toadlets are toxic, and as you may guess are eaten by larger frogs, reptiles, birds etc. You can guess how much wildlife we have lost in the past 50 years, when you know this toad started to march the Northern part of our continent. As they marched, they increased their speed, whilst adapting to new environments. They breed profoundly as they have no natural enemies. They had never been as far as Darwin, but 3 years ago they sat at my doorstep. The army of cane toads had arrived. Not only were they there, but they were still breeding and living in Queensland, where they originally were introduced. Those beautiful frilled lizards, snakes, smaller lizards, birds and other creatures are slowly vanishing from our land. A pity the Queenland Government never did anything about it. They could have put a stop to them. Now you know perhaps that between the N.T. and QLD is a HUGE desert and they happily crossed that. But they only move during the wet season. They are now in Northern W.A. In N.T. where I lived the Government did something about them. And so did we. I tell you about it in part 2 of the Bufo marinus. B.T.W. our dogs are not interested in them.

Comments

Spritzhenry

11 Jul, 2008

I am glad to hear that your dogs aren't interested in these nasties, Marguerite! although your temperatures seem to be so much higher than ours, I don't think I'd want to swap places with you - spiders, snakes, poisonous toads, what next? Killer Kangaroos? Crazy Crocodiles? Dangerous Dingos? (LOL)

Lyd

11 Jul, 2008

good old man interfering with nature again.

Marguerite

11 Jul, 2008

You are right Lyd. But really, what DID people know say about a century ago about the effects this could have on the environment. The first settlers on this continent brought all kinds of plants with them unintentionally of destroying our flora. They brought in Cape spinach, Blackberries, Aristolochia elegans ( Calico flower - Dutchman's pipe ) to name a few. Think of this Caster oil plant for instance. In our favourable climate these things take off and smother native plants. The Calico flower for instance can kill lifestock if eaten accidentally.

Marguerite

11 Jul, 2008

Spritzhenry, kangaroos do not kill you, unless you pick a fight with some of those tall WA males, which stand up to about 1.80 or so high. They can box and also rip your chest open wth their long backnail on one of their toes. Crocs are crazy, lol. You just have to respect them and leave them alone, because a hungry one could have you for dinner. These crocodillus species is much larger than the US alligator. We also have alligators, our fresh water crocs and they are harmless and are found in freshwater billabongs and waterfalls. The others are called salties. Dingos are not dangerous, are very shy and hardly seen in groups. I like them, they make good pets, but you have to have a licence to keep native animals.

Bonkersbon

11 Jul, 2008

Well Maguerite guess the Aborigines would say even us white folks were 'introduced'.We ve probably been the most harmful.

Andrewr

11 Jul, 2008

I've also heard that Australia used to be a lot more green and lush until a settler decided to introduce a few rabbits to hunt. Now we all know what rabbits do best (as well as eat everything lush in sight) so there are a few more than he started with...

Spritzhenry

11 Jul, 2008

Marguerite, I am really glad that we don't have Kangaroos, Crocodiles etc here. Glad to hear that Dingos are not so bad - Henry might chase them if they arrived in 'his' garden! lol. We have a snake in the garden - it slithered across the grass into the border right in front of me today and I jumped 6 feet into the air! Silly, really, it's a harmless grass snake but it gave me a shock.

Marguerite

12 Jul, 2008

Spritzhenry, I can so believe you jumped when you saw this snake, but 6 feet??? Were you a high jumper perhaps? They do give you a fright and even when I have seen litterally tens of them, perhaps one hundred, I still get a quick heartbeat when I see one. Well, kangaroos are sweet too. We had whole heards of them coming onto our farm in the evening, joeyes and all, so cute. They are real family orientated. First the big boomers come in, then followed by mums and joeyes, in or outside their pouch. These little devils of course were great competition with our cattle, as they both like grass. Sometimes at night I would wake up when they thumped around the house. I think if you'd have a kangaroo in your yard, it would be one hop in and one hop out. They can jump quite high, high and wide, better than you Spritzhenry.LOL.
Andrewr. Yes, you heard right. Some English pioneer brought in the bunnies, probably for the table, but of course they went outof control, again because there were no natural enemies to keep the population down. Our roos are vegetarian. So, what did they do next? The brought in the foxes to get rid of them, and give them the foxhunt fun. Well, we still try to eradicate foxes with all kinds of programs here, because they have really diminished our wildlife population and some to extinction. It is all working and little creatures like the chuditch are back in the bush! Rabits are getting scarce thanks to the calicivirus. I know it is cruel, but what can you do when rabbits are eating all the fodder which is meant for cattle? They were a pain in our orchard too, digging holes next to the roots of the apple trees and even chewing on irrigation pipes. I haven't seen one rabbit for 5 years.
Greets to you all,M.

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