THE AUSTRALIAN (Sydney) 25 October 06 Cane toad extinction predicted

Scientists predict the notoriously toxic and resilient cane toad will one day be wiped out by a host of clever strategies including turning the toad against itself.

Cane toads - named as one of 36 Queensland National Trust icons last month - became a pest after its introduction into far north Queensland from Hawaii in 1935 to combat beetles in cane crops.

Prof Robert Capon, from the University of Queensland's Institute of Molecular Bioscience, said its proliferation was due to its almost indestructible nature, aided by chemical reactions.

He said chemicals were used by toads to enhance mating, protect tadpoles and poison predators.

"If you understand how an animal improves its survival, and the cane toad seems pretty good at doing that, then you can go in there and try to mess it up so it's less successful," Prof Capon said.

For example, female cane toads were able to sense whether another toad had used a pond to lay eggs and would avoid the competition.

Prof Capon said if researchers could determine how this was sensed, they could add a chemical into ponds, harmless to other life, that would discourage female toads from laying eggs across the state.

And by discovering how toxins were passed to tadpoles, scientists could find a way to make eggs and tadpoles, and maybe even toads, non-toxic.

"Of course if a cane toad wasn't toxic no one would care - they would just be little hamburgers running around the countryside getting munched up by all the native wildlife," he said.

Prof Capon said while no one answer was "the quick fix" he was hopeful several scientific strategies could work together to reduce survival rates and one day kill off the population.

"It's been a long-standing problem for Australia and I don't think anybody should hold their breath and expect all the cane toads to disappear tomorrow or maybe even next year," he said.

"But there's enough smart people on the game so hopefully it's going to happen in the medium term."

The team is funded by a three-year $1 million state government grant in conjunction with the Australian Invasive Animal Cooperative Research Centre.
Cane toad extinction predicted

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