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COURIER MAIL (Brisbane, Australia) 19 July 07 Toads get a leg up
Cane toads are not causing the ecological catastrophe for which they have long been blamed.
A leading researcher into the dreaded amphibians says field and laboratory trials tell a different story to what has been a mantra for scientists and naturalists for decades.
In an article published in Australasian Science magazine, Professor Rick Shine of the University of Sydney said most native species were not directly affected by cane toads.
Native predators were adapting rapidly to toads in ways that enabled them to coexist and the amphibians were evolving to be good little Australians such as in helping to reduce mosquito numbers.
Professor Shine and a team of scientists are working at Gogg Dam on the Adelaide River floodplain near Darwin to see what happens as toads advance across the Northern Territory.
They ate invertebrates and competed with frogs but studies showed the effects were small.
He said while high mortality rates were seen in frogs and about 90 per cent of goannas died when toads arrived in a habitat, overall effects had been "very patchy".
A bigger issue was toads poisoning animals that tried to eat them.
"Many species really aren't at risk because they are closely related to Asian species that still have the genetic baggage to be able to process toads and to deal with toxins or recognise that you shouldn't eat them," Professor Shine said.
The keelback, a common snake with Asian ancestry, ate toads without problems.
Snakes most in trouble were venomous species such as king browns and death adders which experienced high mortality rates when toads arrived.
Toads get a leg up

king browns and death adders are awesome animals-- cane toads still stink

NORTHERN TERRITORY NEWS (Darwin, Australia) 22 July 07 Study finds toads 'good for NT' (Greg McLean)
Cane toads have been given a bad name by environmental doomsayers - and may even be good for Territory eco-systems - one of Australia's top scientists says.
Professor Rick Shine from the University of Sydney is the head of Team Bufo, a research group that has been studying the impact of cane toads at Fogg Dam on Darwin's outskirts.
His team found the cane toad invasion had helped reduce mosquito numbers.
In the latest edition of Australasian Science magazine, Team Bufo also questions the impact of cane toads on native animals.
Team Bufo reports that while some native animals that eat cane toads _ in particular certain snakes and goannas _ have a high mortality rate, the majority learn to adapt and populations recover.
Professor Shine said doomsday scenarios about toads leaving a trail of death and destruction were a myth.
He believes millions of taxpayer dollars are being wasted on researching cane toads and not enough effort is being spent on understanding them.
Toads do affect the invertebrates because toads eat them and they do compete with frogs," he said.
"We measured both of these and found the effect is quite small."
But the NT's FrogWatch co-ordinator Graeme Sawyer questioned the research.
"We've found no evidence to support their findings," Mr Sawyer said.
"They cause huge damage to eco-systems and to suggest otherwise is absolute nonsense."
Professor Shine said: "The focus has been very simple, with people saying things like, `We don't want to measure toads or understand them - we just want to kill them'.
"So there is a cane toad army raging through tropical Australia and we don't know what resources it needs, where it breeds, what it eats or what effect it has.
"Instead we spend our time and money trying to come up with ways to kill and remove them," he said.
Study finds toads 'good for NT'