 |
Cane
toads, though amphibious wonders of adaptation and survival, epitomize
the magnitude
of the dilemma and complexities inherent in the problem of invasive species
in Australia. Because the environment of Australia had evolved in island
isolation for so many millennia, its species followed an evolutionary trajectory
quite different from that of the environment in which the cane toad evolved
its unique survival characteristics. With no natural predators and the
inherent ability to thwart environmental checks to its spread, cane toads
have migrated across most of Queensland, halfway across the Northern Territory,
and they have reached the wetlands of Kakadu National Park, imperilling
many native species in the process. Their numbers are profuse in the
dry southeast Queensland area and they are spreading down the NSW coast.
According
to the Frog Decline Reversal Project, quite a few have hitched a ride down
to Sydney in vegetable trucks and they have established themselves at the
2000 Olympics site (at Homebush Bay in Sydney's inner western suburbs).
This area of Sydney is also the largest remaining NSW stronghold for the
endangered Green and Golden Bell frog (Litoria aurea). In the process,
the toads are responsible for the reduction of many species of Australian
wildlife. |
