intruder Bufo marinus

one problem here in the Philippines are the introduced species.
as on many other places, cane toads (Bufo marinus) affects the native wildlife drastically.

i found the follow article interesting and will post it here, it is not about venomous snakes, but from interest for folks working in the field!


Join Townsville Frog Lady for Toad Hour
By Daniel bateman, 3/26/08, Townsville Bulletin, news.com.au

Roslyn and Terry O'Keefe don't hate cane toads ... they just happen to prefer frogs.

While scientists and authorities continued to flesh out a solution to Australia's ever-growing toad problem, the O'Keefes were practising toad control the best way they know by hand. The couple, who had been operating the Balgal Beach Holiday Units for the past five years, estimated they had manually removed `hundreds of thousands' of toads from their property. Every night the pair went out with a torch and hunted the feral amphibians, on average collecting about 30 toads a night.

The captured toads were sprayed with Dettol and disposed of humanely ... and in their absence, the native wildlife started to flourish. "We've seen a huge difference in the local frog populations," Mrs O'Keefe said.
"We don't have many toads breeding here now, so we've been getting species here like the white-lipped giant tree frog.

"They sit on the patio of one of the units."

"The international guests and locals love it."

The O'Keefes were asking North Queenslanders to join them this Saturday from 8pm to 9pm to participate in `Toad Hour' an effort to reduce the number of cane toads.

The Toad Hour would coincide with Earth Hour, where people were encouraged to turn lights off for one hour to reduce greenhouse emissions and promote global warming awareness.

"We hope that more people use Earth Hour as an hour to not only care for the environment by turning off their lights, but spend the hour eradicating toads," Mrs O'Keefe said.

"If everyone did it, that one hour a night, imagine how many million less toads we would have?"

While the O'Keefes' efforts had succeeded in removing hefty amounts of the troublesome toads, last month's heavy rainfall brought a flood of the pests back to the area. These toads were not yet matured, and were only about 2.5cm long, however the O'Keefes were out every night collecting the `toadlings' to keep numbers down.

Before the Easter long weekend, the O'Keefes were removing up to 80 toads a night.

"It's been getting down to going out and finding no toads whatsoever," Mrs O'Keefe said.

"Only in the last month or so, because of the rain, they have come back."

While the units were located at one of the more picturesque of the northern beaches, Mrs O'Keefe said they wanted the area's native frogs to be more of an attraction for visitors.

"They're starting to call me the Frog Lady," she said.

"We sell T-shirts with frogs on them. We got an email from a German who stayed here and bought a shirt, and took photos of himself wearing the shirt all around the world.

"The beach is a beach, but what makes this area unique is all its frogs."

Mario Lutz wrote:

one problem here in the Philippines are the introduced species.
as on many other places, cane toads (Bufo marinus) affects the native wildlife drastically.

Is there much evidence of a drastic effect? The reason it has been so much of a disaster in Australia (at least on toad predators) is that there are no native toads there, so anuran-eating predators could not cope with the toxins, and were unable to avoid them. Since Asia has plenty of indigenous bufonids, anuran predators should be a lot less affected, being either able to deal with the toxins, or able to avoid ingesting the toads. Obviously, that does not affect the toad's ability to outcompete/predate other anurans.

Just a thought/question...

Cheers,

WW

i totally overlooked your question here Wolfgang, well drastically was a bit harsh maybe. but there are effects, as Bufo marinus is swallowing almost everything they can handle, including other bufonids, small lizards, small snakes, etc. there is sure an effect on this species the ones who get over hunted... my property is 27.000 m2 and i get every week more than 100 cane toads of my land... since i do this (about 1 1/2 years) we have more native wildlife, incl. quails etc. before, you hardly found anything here but cobras.. the initial thing why i was starting to remove them here was the death of my Breeder !!! couple Varanus salvadorii from Papuan, this guys has been seen (by one of the caretakers) to eat a cane toad, 45 minutes later, both was death! as the guy was telling us they eat them only after the animals have been found death in their enclosure, we couldnt do anything anymore for them. the autopsy has shown it was indeed intoxication by Bufo marinus.... so at least it was a drastically effect on me if you wish.. of course, no studies have been done on that topic - but the results just here on my property give me a clue . Angel Alcalla told me years ago, the can be no effect been found on the local amphibian population so far. i am not sure if i can believe that or not...


cheers
Mario

I do not know, how widespread cane toads are in the Philippines, but: Their presence will clearly affect crocodile populations too. Juvenile cane toads are also toxic as well as tadpoles are, as far as I know...