NORTHERN TERRITORY NEWS (Darwin, Australia) 11 April 08 You bloody what? (Matt Cunningham)
Australia's oldest museum is offering advice on how to keep cane toads as pets, outraging Territorians who are battling to stop the invading pests.
Sydney's Australian Museum lists the advice including tips on habitat and diet under the heading "How should I look after a pet cane toad?''
"Cane toads need a large tank ... with clean absorbent flooring that is easy to change -- newspaper is suitable,'' the website says.
"The tank should be kept heated at a temperature between 20C and 27C, by several 25-watt aquarium bulbs or the equivalent.''
It goes on to point out that cane toads love eating crickets, cockroaches and mealworms.
"Large cane toads that are housed at high temperatures can eat several hundred crickets in one week,'' it says.
"Newborn mice (pinkies) are a good nutritional supplement in the diet once a month.''
Parap resident John Williams said he was horrified when he discovered the information on the museum's website.
"The safest way to keep a cane toad is in a ziplock bag in the back of the freezer,'' he said.
Territorians have shown little tolerance for cane toads since they started invading the Top End.
Former RSPCA chief executive Lindsay Wilkinson suffered a public backlash after he suggested cane toads should be killed humanely by rubbing haemorrhoid cream on their backs, anaesthetising them.
"Let's put haemorrhoid cream on Lindsay Wilkinson's head so it will anaesthetise him,'' one reader wrote to the Northern Territory News at the time.
Mr Wilkinson packed his bags and headed back to New South Wales soon after.
The museum's advice is unlikely to sit well with other Darwin residents, who have just voted Graeme Sawyer Lord Mayor on the back of his toadbusting exploits.
"I think that would be a really good website to get rid of,'' Mr Sawyer said.
You bloody what?