SUNDAY TIMES (Perth, Australia) 07 October 06 6000 cane toads gassed (Joe Spagnolo)

More than 6000 cane toads have been caught near the WA border in two weeks.

Toad catchers have been on a hunt 100km east of the WA-Northern Territory border near Timber Creek.

They have caught and destroyed 6352 cane toads near waterholes where the pests were trying to ying beat the heat.

Using helicopters and volunteers, including Vietnam veterans from Perth, the Stop the Toad Foundation is culling toads which are estimated to number in the tens of thousands.

And in the past year, the Department of Environment and Conservation and the Kimberley Toad Busters have caught 50,000 toads in the area.

Foundation spokesman Dennis Beros said a female cane toad could lay 30,000 eggs.

It was impossible to eliminate toads in the area, but they wanted to control the numbers to stop them spreading to WA.

``It's a very tough landscape out there and the climate this time of the year works against them,'' Mr Beros said.

``If we can control them, we can create a buffer and keep driving them back. They will keep advancing in the wet season and we'll keep driving them back in the dry season until there is some type of long-term solution.''

He said the toads were caught by hand, taken to camp and gassed with carbon dioxide.

``It's a humane way of killing them,'' he said. ``Their lights go out very quickly: within the minute.''

Mr Beros said volunteers in the Great Toad Muster faced several obstacles - snakes and crocodiles being the worst.

``It's easier to see the crocs at night,'' he said. ``We scan the areas with torches and we can see the eyes of the crocs looking back at you.''

Environment Minister Mark McGowan said cane toads were a major threat to WA's biodiversity and more needed to be done to find a long-term, permanent solution to the problem.

``We are pulling out all stops in this battle, but we need the Commonwealth Government to join us in taking this threat seriously by providing adequate funds to find a biological solution to eradicate the cane toad,'' he said.
6000 cane toads gassed

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