Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
It’s not sports! Overzealous fans should respect their idols
Experts in China studies impressed by city’s transformation during site visits
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
Australia goes on toad-kill rampage
Source: Agencies |
March 27, 2009, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
For decades the poisonous cane toad has plagued Australians, breeding rapidly, eating voraciously and bestowing death upon most animals that dare consume it.
So officials have come up with a novel solution: hold a festive mass killing of the creatures and turn the corpses into fertilizer for the very farmers who have battled the pests for years.
On Saturday residents of five communities in cane toad-plagued northern Queensland state will grab their flashlights and fan out into the night to hunt down the hated animals as part of the inaugural "Toad Day Out" celebration.
The toads will be brought to collection points the next morning to be weighed and killed, with some of the remains ground into fertilizer for sugarcane farmers.
"It's just a circle of poetic justice!" said Toad Day Out organizer Lisa Ahrens. "Seventy-five years later they're a benefit to the cane farmer."
The toads were imported from South America to Queensland in 1935 in a failed attempt to control beetles on sugarcane plantations. The toads couldn't jump high enough to eat the beetles, which live on top of cane stalks.
The ample amphibians, which grow up to 20 centimeters in length, bred rapidly, and their millions-strong population now threatens many local species across Australia.
They spread diseases, such as salmonella, and produce highly toxic venom from glands in their skin that can kill would-be predators. The toads are also voracious eaters, chomping up insects, frogs, small reptiles and mammals - even birds. Cane toads are only harmful to humans if their poison is swallowed.
"The cane toad is probably the most disgusting creature and the most destructive creature," said Queensland politician Shane Knuth, a longtime loather of cane toads who came up with the Toad Day Out idea.
So officials have come up with a novel solution: hold a festive mass killing of the creatures and turn the corpses into fertilizer for the very farmers who have battled the pests for years.
On Saturday residents of five communities in cane toad-plagued northern Queensland state will grab their flashlights and fan out into the night to hunt down the hated animals as part of the inaugural "Toad Day Out" celebration.
The toads will be brought to collection points the next morning to be weighed and killed, with some of the remains ground into fertilizer for sugarcane farmers.
"It's just a circle of poetic justice!" said Toad Day Out organizer Lisa Ahrens. "Seventy-five years later they're a benefit to the cane farmer."
The toads were imported from South America to Queensland in 1935 in a failed attempt to control beetles on sugarcane plantations. The toads couldn't jump high enough to eat the beetles, which live on top of cane stalks.
The ample amphibians, which grow up to 20 centimeters in length, bred rapidly, and their millions-strong population now threatens many local species across Australia.
They spread diseases, such as salmonella, and produce highly toxic venom from glands in their skin that can kill would-be predators. The toads are also voracious eaters, chomping up insects, frogs, small reptiles and mammals - even birds. Cane toads are only harmful to humans if their poison is swallowed.
"The cane toad is probably the most disgusting creature and the most destructive creature," said Queensland politician Shane Knuth, a longtime loather of cane toads who came up with the Toad Day Out idea.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
