CROCLIST: RE: Manolis: Cane Toad in Food-Chain Scenario Causes CrocExplosion on Top End

[Adam Britton]

I think both articles are flawed.  The study on croc nesting is all very
well, but it's jumping the gun to suggest that it'll lead to an explosion of
crocs.  One thing we know about crocs is that if you throw a lot of
hatchlings into an established system, you'll see a lot of mortality of
those juveniles due to competition, predation and limited resources.
Nothing in the freshie study has been done to look at this yet.  Of course,
it could simply be NT News grandstanding the issues as usual.

As for Brian Bush's article, if ever an issue had two extremes then Brian's
viewpoint is far stage left.  The whole reason studies like the above are
being done is to address much of the anecdote that surrounds this issue (of
which the article is jam-packed!), and while there might be examples of the
positive presence of ferals in some areas that doesn't mean we should accept
the presence of threatening processes and assume that management is
worthless, and even negative to Australia's best interests!  This is
patently rubbish - there is a huge amount of feral animal control that goes
on with established ferals (not just cane toads), and the impacts of
particular species in certain areas (eg. pigs, buffalo, cats, ants) has been
exhaustively documented (but not researched in that article, it would seem).

Statements about northern quolls that have been seen eating cane toads are
simply anecdotal, and without doubt densities of this species have crashed
in Kakadu National Park.  Should we sit back and hope that species in the
path of toads somehow manage to adapt in time, or should we do something
about slowing it down / stopping it?  Some goanna declines have begun to
slowly reverse, others have not, so blanket statements about them don't
reflect the true situation.  And I'd very much like to see the study that
suggests freshwater crocodile population densities haven't been affected by
toads, because that's not what we've measured.

Toads might not be the end of all Life on Earth, as some people might imply,
but they're yet another threatening process which - when added to the rest -
can negatively impact native ecosystems.  These ecosystems are under enough
stress as it is, and toads are something they can do without... not to
mention most of the others as well.  This has nothing to do with the
animals, and everything to do with where they are.

Best wishes,

Adam

 

--
Dr Adam Britton, abritton at crocodilian.com
Big Gecko, http://crocodilian.com
Tel/Fax. 61 (0)8 8988 4607
Mobile. 61 (0)407 185182
 
-----Original Message-----
From: croclist-bounces at lists.gatorhole.com
[mailto:croclist-bounces at lists.gatorhole.com] On Behalf Of Steve Grenard
Sent: Sunday, 22 October 2006 10:39 PM
To: croclist at lists.gatorhole.com
Subject: CROCLIST: RE: Manolis: Cane Toad in Food-Chain Scenario Causes
CrocExplosion on Top End

This item was cross posted to venomlist. In response Brian Bush shared the
following:

http://members.iinet.com.au/~bush/CT.PDF

for an alternative perspective on Bufo in Oz.

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