PEST PROBE: University of Sydney researcher Rick Shine believes importing toads could be key to controlling the pesky pest. Pic: Alan Pryke Source: The Courier-Mail
A LEADING scientist wants to import more cane toads into Australia.
But his proposal is all for a good cause, with University of Sydney researcher Rick Shine seeking to use 40 toads for research he believes may contain the key to controlling the pest, hundreds of millions of which have devastated wildlife across much of northern Australia.
It's proposed they be brought from Venezuela, their native range, and Hawaii because toads were originally introduced to Queensland from those countries.
The original 40 will be bred then euthanased, with research conducted on their offspring. This will minimise the transmission of any parasites or disease. When research is finished, all offspring will be destroyed.
Professor Shine, a 2012 Australian Laureate Fellow and leading researcher, hopes that no one will get hopping mad about his idea which is yet to be approved by the Federal Environment Department.
His work will start in May and last five years, costing $1 million, funded from an Australian Research Council grant.
"By bringing in these toads we will be able to see what Aussie toad ancestors looked like and it will give us a much clearer idea of how they have adapted here," he said. "Hopefully, this will give us ideas about what to do about them.
"The bottom line is that we'll be looking at the biology of toads and any vulnerabilities which eventually might be used in control methods."
PEST PROBE: University of Sydney researcher Rick Shine believes importing toads could be key to controlling the pesky pest. Pic: Alan Pryke
Professor Shine said toads had spread to more than 40 countries but they particularly prospered in Australia.
This was due to a suitable environment and because we had no native toad species. This meant no animals here had evolved either to eat poisonous toads or to avoid them.
"Our animals just don't understand that a toad for breakfast is a bad idea," he said. "Bringing in animals like toads, cats, rabbits and foxes has been a catastrophe for native animals."
Professor Shine is intrigued with the speed with which toads have evolved in Australia, developing long legs that enable them to cover 1km in a single night and allowing them to spread at 50km a year.
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