CANE TOAD EXPLOSION
RAIN SPARKS HUGE PEST RAMPAGE
SWARMS of tiny baby toads have emerged from Centenary Lakes, flexing their newlyformed legs to wreak havoc on native wildlife.
Thousands of the recently metamorphosed pests were gutter-hopping beside the lake in Greenslopes St, Edge Hill yesterday.
James Cook University tropical ecology Professor Ross Alford said current conditions were ripe for a toad explosion.
“Once you get a bit of rain and things fill up with water, you’ll see them anywhere roughly four to six weeks later,” he said.
“I’m sure you’ve heard the males calling. It’s a trilling sort of sound.”
Prof Alford said it was possible to remove unhatched eggs from water because of their distinctive, gelatinous characteristics. The untrained eye could confuse them for some native frog species’ broods, but some quick training would alleviate that risk.
Either way, Prof Alford said it was a moot point.
“They have a strong competitive effect when they lay and slow each other’s growth down and the vast majority of them die,” he said. “So removing the eggs so the ones that survive have more food could actually mean they grow up bigger and stronger.”
Prof Alford said the toadlets were extremely vulnerable to heat and predators such as meat ants, which ate around the poisonous skin, and wading birds that were close relatives to species in other parts of the world where cane toads were native.
“Females lay about 7000 eggs in one go and virtually all of them die before they become adult toads,” he said.
A Cairns Regional Council spokeswoman said the council did not carry out any specific toadlet killing measures because the species was not declared a pest in Queensland.