HERALD SUN (Melbourne, Australia) 18 August 05 Top End residents hunt down toads
A toad telethon is being held in Darwin tonight to mark the 70th anniversary of the dire day cane toads were released in Australia.
Residents in Darwin and surrounding rural areas were today urged to scour their backyards overnight for the deadly creatures, in a Top End Cane Toad Audit.
People are being asked to report anything they find to FrogWatch, with the chance to win prizes for the biggest and ugliest toads found.
"We want to start to get people active on cane toad control around the Darwin area," FrogWatch co-ordinator Graeme Sawyer said.
He said 16 toads had been found in Darwin's Botanic Gardens in the past two months, and eight discovered hopping around the northern suburbs.
"We are pretty sure they are hitchhiker toads," he said.
"But we are a bit concerned there may be other toads around.
"What we are hoping to do is clear all these animals out so come the wet (season) we don't have a huge outbreak of toads in Darwin."
Today is the 70th anniversary of the day when 500 toads were released from their breeding pond at Gordonvale, Queensland, to kill sugar cane pests.
In the months following the release another 41,800 toads were set free in Queensland.
The warty, poisonous pests have since marched across Australia, killing millions of native animals – from lizards to crocodiles – including in world heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.
The main toad "front" is now just 40km south of Darwin, and due to hit the city next wet season.
Top End residents hunt down toads