NPR broadcast

[NewtZoo]

Hey all,
Did anyone hear this on NPR?
Australian Study Uses Cat Food In War On Cane Toad : NPR
Scientists use cat food to attract ants that kill cane toads in Australia.
Enjoy!

 

[tmarmoratus]

And how many emerging native Anuran species will be attacked by these same meat ants utilizing this method? :nono:

The Australian Cane Toad issue is a sad one, no matter how you slice it.

 

[NewtZoo]

I read a paper on this as well and it stated that native frogs can jump away or are immune to the ants. So most of the emerging Cane Toads cant jump away, making them vulnerable. So fear not.

 

[Socrates]

Well I'm skeptical myself, because introducing Cane toads to many areas was in good intent, but looked what came of that. Plus it's only playing with a higher possibility of hurting the native populations. But then again it could actually be a useful method.

 

[NewtZoo]

The ants are already native so they are not invasive (not like cane toads). The idea is to attract them to waters edge and since native frogs have already co-evolved with the ants they will jump away when threatened, which the cane toad will not...most of the time.