Ride into 2019 like these cane toads using a python as an Uber - Quartz

-

There are many ways to step into a new year. You can decide to make small but meaningful changes, or commit to a whole life thesis. Or, if you’re a poisonous and libidinous cane toad, you could jump onto a huge python and snake away from 2018 in style.

After torrential rainfall in Kununurra, a town in northern Australia, resident Andrew Mock captured an image of 10 cane toads aboard a 3.5 meter (11.5 feet) python named Monty as it moved toward higher ground. As the Guardian put it, the photo has prompted “horror, amazement, and jokes about the outback Uber.”

Jodi Rowley, curator of Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology at the Australian Museum, pointed out on Twitter that the toads weren’t just trying to hitch a ride; they were also attempting to mate with the python. And serpents aren’t the only unusual objects of desire for cane toads—Rowley has seen one trying to procreate with a rotting mango before.

It’s a good thing that Monty didn’t try and attack his excited passengers, because cane toads are extremely poisonous. According to Animal Research, the toad excretes a fluid known as bufotoxin when it is threatened, which contains the chemical bufotenin, classified as a class-1 drug under Australian law alongside heroin. If ingested, the venomous amphibians can be fatal.

The cane toad’s toxicity is one of the main reasons why it’s considered a dangerous pest in Australia. Introduced in the 1930s to combat the cane beetle population, which was damaging sugar cane crops, the toads failed to eliminate the beetles but reproduced well into the millions instead. Since then, cane toads have depleted native fauna, threatened many snake species, and continue to poison pets and predators even after the toads are dead.

As a result, the government encourages community groups aimed at eradicating the species, and Australian researchers are also conducting genetic research to understand how to eliminate the toads better. Mildly toxic sausages made of cane toad meat have even been airdropped around the country as part of a taste aversion program to prevent native predators from trying to eat amphibian.

“I thought it was fascinating that some of the local reptiles have gotten used to [the cane toads] and not eating them,” Paul Mock, Andrew Mock’s brother on whose property Monty the python usually traverses, told the Guardian. Maybe Monty will get used to being a ride-share service too.



http://bit.ly/2SuIYdp

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All In The Family: Maine Mother & Son Charged in Massive Drug Bust

-
Image
corso dog :: Article Creator Woman Hospitalized After Attack By 2 Dogs At Same Edmonton Home Where Boy Died: Lawyer UPDATE: On April 15, 2024, the City of Edmonton provided an update on the fatal attack. It said that prior to the deadly incident on April 1, "the city had no lawful basis to remove the dogs from the home." The city added that "all prior complaints about the dogs involved in this incident were investigated thoroughly and appropriate action was taken in accordance with the applicable legislation." The city also said a review found that its staff "acted appropriately in accordance with our standard practices and in compliance with the relevant legal constraints given the nature of past complaints and reports." A woman was hospitalized after being attacked in February by two large Cane Corso dogs at the same home where an 11-year-old boy was killed last week, the woman's lawyer told Global News. "I
Read more

Rare Frogs And Illegal Drugs - Palisades Hudson Financial Group

-
Image
Colombian conservationist Ivan Lozano has hit on a brilliantly promising strategy to protect his country’s rare and endangered amphibians. His plan: Flood the market with them. Lozano is not hunting rare frogs in Colombia’s Andean forests. He is raising them himself and selling them at prices designed to undercut poachers and smugglers. If he can raise the frogs cheaply enough, and in large enough numbers, he might manage to drive down the market price to the point that poachers no longer find it worthwhile to harvest and smuggle the creatures onto the black markets. Lozano told The Associated Press that his company also encourages collectors to breed their own frogs. Picture yourself as a poacher. If the government toughens the legal penalties and steps up enforcement, you will shrug your shoulders; legal risks are a basic cost of doing business. Since the demand for your product already exists among foreign collectors and other buyers, tougher enforcement merely reduces supply a
Read more

Burn scars, winter storms threaten rare and endangered species in San Gabriel Mountains - The Bakersfield Californian

-
Image
LOS ANGELES — Up until a few weeks ago, the West Fork of the San Gabriel River was one of the most abundant wildlife habitats in Los Angeles County, a secluded and rugged area defined by its steep peaks, lush canyons and mixture of rare and endangered species. Recently however, a team of federal biologists and forest rangers was aghast when it visited the stream following the Bobcat fire, which has burned more than 115,000 acres in the heart of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Terrain that once resembled a High Sierra granite gorge now looked like ground zero after a nuclear explosion, and the usually clean mountain air was sharp with the stench of smoke. Particularly unsettling were the bare and ashen slopes that were now primed to dissolve under pounding winter storms. A heavy mudslide, experts said, could reverse decades of conservation efforts by inundating the last outposts for such federally protected species as the Santa Ana sucker fish and Southern California m
Read more