The Cane Toad

Years ago, people in Australia thought it would be a good idea to import cane toads to control pests. At the time, the Australian government approved it because pests were seriously damaging crops, but now the cane toads are all over the place. And the downside is that the various proposed methods to control cane toads simply won't work.

Some people have proposed erecting fences to control the spread of the toads. Let's follow that logic for a moment. Say the fence does keep the toads from moving across the land. Well, what about rivers and streams? We can't build fences across rivers and streams because it would disrupt the flow of water and the movement of native wildlife. So the toads would just spread by means of waterways whether or not the fences are erected.

Another big idea was to get volunteers at the local level to get involved and help, uh, eradicate the cane toads. Let's face it, the average person is not a biologist, and how are you going to train everyone to distinguish between native frog offspring and those of cane toads? You can't, because they're too similar, and the unfortunate consequence of using poorly trained volunteers is that native frog populations will probably decline.

The last thing, um, is this new virus that scientists have engineered. Sure, it might kill off cane toads in Australia, but what if the virus spreads to populations in regions where the cane toads are native? If such a virus were to infect cane toad populations in their native environments, it would be an ecological disaster. Basically, the virus could disrupt the natural habitat there as much as the cane toad has disrupted it in Australia.