Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Thursday, November 12

Had dinner last night with some of Bill's coworkers, and one of the women lives in Darwin, which is basically at the very top of Australia, where it is quite humid. She was explaining that she is having a house built, and because they had not yet installed window screens, (they call them flyscreens) the frogs kept jumping in through the windows, and were even in the toilet. When I asked her what they did about that, she said she closed the lid but when she came back in, the frog was squeezing himself through the little space between the rim and the lid. She said since they've put the flyscreens on the windows, the frogs jump up and cling to the screens, hoping to get in, and there are so many they literally cover the screens.

Then I asked her if the cane toad had found its way to Darwin yet, from Queensland, and she said that they had, and most of the critters that eat them had died off. The toads have two poisonous sacs located on their upper backs, and when a predator bites them, the poison is released and kills the predator. She explained that in many areas of Australia, once the local wildlife that eat the toads has died off from having done so, they slowly start coming back as they adapt by learning ways to eat the toad without coming into contact with the poison sacs, such as flipping the toad over onto its back. She noted that she has not seen a goana, a very large lizard, in over 4 years, and they used to be very common, but the hope is that they will eventually return. I mentioned that I'd heard many dogs die from biting the toads, and she said that her dog has learned how to deal with them, and has basically become an addict. The dog licks the toads, just enough to get some sort of buzz, and she said when he comes back into the house it's obvious by the way he acts that he has been out licking toads again. She likened it to cats with catnip, and said the dog has shown no ill effects, but she thinks he is addicted to toad licking.

If you're not familiar with the saga of the cane toad, it's basically a phenomenal goof-up by the government, who brought the toads in to control the cane beetle. However, the beetles stayed far up on the cane and the toads did not jump up to eat them, per the plan, so the effort was fruitless. To make matters worse, the toads then began multiplying like crazy and they started to spread, and have continued spreading, becoming a far bigger pest than the beetles ever were. Thus far efforts to erradicate them have been unsuccessful.

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