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Toad Outbreak Marrara
Published: 26 Feb 2012
A stitch in Time!
We have all heard the old saying a stitch in time saves nine and it is there to remind us that timely action can save the need for a lot more action later on! This is certainly true in relation to controlling Cane Toads.
Over the past week at the Marrara golf course, players, the club and FrogWatch have combined to remove an estimate 60,000 small cane toads. Fortunately alert members of the community noticed the toads and alerted the Golf Club, who got in touch with FrogWatch just as the metamorph toads were emerging from the water.
Toads at this stage of their life are vulnerable to dehydration and in the daytime they were all congregated on the edge of the water. See Picture below. This enabled us to remove them easily.
Small toads are particularly dangerous to small native animals. It is small toads like these that are eaten be our small goannas and lizards like our frillies. If not controlled the toadlets spread out over a large area looking for food. Frillies and other small native animals see them as a food source and sadly they eat them and die.
FrogWatch coordinator Graeme Sawyer said you can clearly see the impact of this around Darwin. In areas where we get small toadlets our frillies and small goannas are gone, but in areas where we have managed to stop small toads, we still have frillies and goannas.
He urged everyone to be on the lookout for these small toads or toad tadpoles and report them to FrogWatch on 1800243564 or by email to info@frogwatch.org.au. Control details are on the website, www.frogwatch.org.au