Cane Toad Essay
The Invasive Cane Toad
An invasive species is defined as a species that is non-native or alien to a community or ecosystem that was introduced by humans and has turned invasive, spreading widely and coming to dominate in the community causing economic or environmental harm. The cane toad is an example of an invasive species. It is a large, strong, and healthy amphibian that is native to Central and South America. They are predators of insects and other small prey. The cane toad was introduced to Australia in 1935. The reason that it was brought to Australia was to try to control the pest beetles that were destroying fields of sugarcane before the use of chemicals. It was a catastrophic mistake. The cane toads failed to eat the beetles and they …show more content…
There is worry that they will eventually be able to spread to South Australia through the river systems. The government is creating a plan under the EPBC Act to address the impact of cane toads on native species and ecological communities. Also, there is community ground control work and various research projects that have been funded. There is a cane toad advisory group that has been formed which consists of government representatives from the affected state areas. This group monitors the spread of the cane toads and retrieves advice from experts. The affected states have funded research for monitoring the impacts of the toads and trying to find their vulnerabilities. They also have resorted to trapping them and also manually removing them. There are volunteers that work at night to try to catch them in order to stop their further spreading across the country. They put them in containers and then use carbon dioxide to painlessly kill them. The country’s hope is that continuing research will help lead to a better knowledge of the cane toad’s vulnerabilities so that they may be able to find a way create a local containment or eradication of
An invasive species is defined as a species that is non-native or alien to a community or ecosystem that was introduced by humans and has turned invasive, spreading widely and coming to dominate in the community causing economic or environmental harm. The cane toad is an example of an invasive species. It is a large, strong, and healthy amphibian that is native to Central and South America. They are predators of insects and other small prey. The cane toad was introduced to Australia in 1935. The reason that it was brought to Australia was to try to control the pest beetles that were destroying fields of sugarcane before the use of chemicals. It was a catastrophic mistake. The cane toads failed to eat the beetles and they …show more content…
There is worry that they will eventually be able to spread to South Australia through the river systems. The government is creating a plan under the EPBC Act to address the impact of cane toads on native species and ecological communities. Also, there is community ground control work and various research projects that have been funded. There is a cane toad advisory group that has been formed which consists of government representatives from the affected state areas. This group monitors the spread of the cane toads and retrieves advice from experts. The affected states have funded research for monitoring the impacts of the toads and trying to find their vulnerabilities. They also have resorted to trapping them and also manually removing them. There are volunteers that work at night to try to catch them in order to stop their further spreading across the country. They put them in containers and then use carbon dioxide to painlessly kill them. The country’s hope is that continuing research will help lead to a better knowledge of the cane toad’s vulnerabilities so that they may be able to find a way create a local containment or eradication of