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159312
Tue, 02/08/2011 - 11:39
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http://m.oananews.org//node/159312
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Recent floods in Queensland and northern NSW will have helped pesky cane toads hitch rides on waterways into new areas of inland Australia,
(AAP) - Recent floods in Queensland and northern NSW will have helped pesky cane toads hitch rides on waterways into new areas of inland Australia, an expert says.
Rick Shine, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Sydney University, said although some of the warty pests will have drowned, others will have made the best of the situation.
"The toads will be carried down by the floodwaters, of course, into arid areas ... the toads will happily catch a ride," Prof Shine told AAP on Tuesday.
"They are fantastic stowaways. I'm sure that there'll be cane toads turning up in bits of Australia (where) they haven't been present before.
"There's no way that they're going to survive there long-term but they may survive long enough to do some damage."
Since being introduced to Queensland in the 1930s to control beetles attacking crops of sugar cane, cane toads have spread across Queensland and into the Northern Territory.
In recent years they've been spotted in parts of Western Australia and NSW, including a satellite population in Sydney's south at Taren Point.
Prof Shine said the species had evolved, with the toads on the frontline becoming more "athletic".
"If you radio track toads around Townsville, they move a bit less than 10m a day, if you do it up around Darwin, they move an average of 100m a day but often a kilometre or even two," he said.
"You've got a very, very rapid evolution of a toad that stays on the roads rather than going into the bush because you can go quicker that way.
"(It) runs in straight lines, runs every night the conditions are good, they've really evolved into a remarkable dispersal machine.
"Any gene that's arisen that says `go round in circles' has stayed in Queensland."
Despite this, it's unlikely they will spread into southern Australia because of the cooler climate, Prof Shine said.
And the native species under threat from cane toads, including snakes, quolls and freshwater crocodiles, have also evolved - learning to avoid them and becoming resistant to their poisons.
Prof Shine said there was a high mortality rate among these native species when cane toads first moved into an area but they soon evolve and repopulate to coexist with the pests.
With the ability to lay 30,000 eggs in one night, eradicating the cane toad is difficult, but Prof Shine said his team is finding vulnerabilities in the toads' biology.
Rick Shine, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Sydney University, said although some of the warty pests will have drowned, others will have made the best of the situation.
"The toads will be carried down by the floodwaters, of course, into arid areas ... the toads will happily catch a ride," Prof Shine told AAP on Tuesday.
"They are fantastic stowaways. I'm sure that there'll be cane toads turning up in bits of Australia (where) they haven't been present before.
"There's no way that they're going to survive there long-term but they may survive long enough to do some damage."
Since being introduced to Queensland in the 1930s to control beetles attacking crops of sugar cane, cane toads have spread across Queensland and into the Northern Territory.
In recent years they've been spotted in parts of Western Australia and NSW, including a satellite population in Sydney's south at Taren Point.
Prof Shine said the species had evolved, with the toads on the frontline becoming more "athletic".
"If you radio track toads around Townsville, they move a bit less than 10m a day, if you do it up around Darwin, they move an average of 100m a day but often a kilometre or even two," he said.
"You've got a very, very rapid evolution of a toad that stays on the roads rather than going into the bush because you can go quicker that way.
"(It) runs in straight lines, runs every night the conditions are good, they've really evolved into a remarkable dispersal machine.
"Any gene that's arisen that says `go round in circles' has stayed in Queensland."
Despite this, it's unlikely they will spread into southern Australia because of the cooler climate, Prof Shine said.
And the native species under threat from cane toads, including snakes, quolls and freshwater crocodiles, have also evolved - learning to avoid them and becoming resistant to their poisons.
Prof Shine said there was a high mortality rate among these native species when cane toads first moved into an area but they soon evolve and repopulate to coexist with the pests.
With the ability to lay 30,000 eggs in one night, eradicating the cane toad is difficult, but Prof Shine said his team is finding vulnerabilities in the toads' biology.
