Cane toads, Pauline Hanson and the Cobra effect

Put this in the ‘How to earn extra money at home’ category. But only if you live across the northern parts of Australia. One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson has proposed the Government pay welfare recipients 10 cents for every cane toad they collect alive and hand to their local council. The idea is that the council would kill the toads humanely in large freezers.

We’ve done it before – for better and worse – with foxes and feral cats, even the wedge-tailed eagle, the Tassie Devil, the wombat and koala. But is Ms Hanson’s idea to put a speed bump in the path of the toad’s relentless expansion across the country worth considering?

The cane toad, introduced in the 1930s to control native beetles eating sugar cane crops, has prospered and there are now more than 200 million across Queensland, northern New South Wales, the Northern Territory and the north of Western Australia. But the effect on native flora and fauna has been devastating.

David Smerdon, assistant professor in the school of economics at the University of Queensland, says humans react to incentives, but that the key is to get the accounting – and the ethics – right.

Writing for The Conversation, he says: “In NSW and Queensland, you can earn 10 cents by returning an empty drink container to your local supermarket. That’s a task exponentially easier than catching a cane toad and delivering it alive to your local council chambers.”

He went on to explain why Ms Hanson’s idea is a poor one through the Cobra effect.

“The Cobra effect is named after a curious incident from British Colonial India. Faced with a cobra outbreak, the local government of Delhi enacted a cash-for-cobras scheme, with initial success. But as cobras became harder to find, the locals responded to the incentives in a completely logical way: they started breeding the snakes to claim their bounties. When the scheme was scrapped, breeders released their now-worthless snakes, resulting in the city having more cobras than before the scheme.”

Your thoughts?

10 comments

She means well 

This is a great idea, but why alive ones to get the cash? Killém then take in freezer bag and get a bulk refund. These are such nasty ugly little fellas as well as a threat to anything in its way.

Pauline should go further and offer bonus when you get 100 frozen bodies.

The Cobra effect - interesting, I hadn't heard of that, makes sense though. 

I seem to remember there was a bounty on cane toads years ago, at least where I was living.  It didn't work, they just continued to increase in numbers, rather than decline. Maybe the local kids were breeding them. LOL, I wouldn't have put it past my kids to do that.

There have been various organisations holding cane toad busting nights over the years, nothing seems to stop the damn things.

Bob Katter has jumped on the Hanson bandwagon, saying a bounty is a good thing and kids should be encouraged to shoot them with low powered air rifles.

But maybe we won't actually need a bounty (or kids running around with guns), because something is happening to the cane toads, at least around here.  I started a topic about that on here a little while ago.  Some interesting facts emerged.

Link ... https://www.yourlifechoices.com.au/the_meeting_place/post/whats-happening-to-the-cane-toads

 

From your original topic Leonie (link above) where you said, "I have been noticing quite a few cane toads that look sickly and malnourished."

Reagan's comment about the disease Mucor amphibiorum in the Cane Toad (Bufo marinus) in Australia is interesting.

For example, Mucor amphibiorum appears to be endemic in Australia, infecting free-living frogs and toads in Queensland, New South Wales and Northern Territory, with accidental introductions into captive frogs in Melbourne and Perth and platypuses in Tasmania.

More info:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/15266521_Mucor_amphibiorum_in_the_toad_Bufo_marinus_in_Australia

Some interesting info about Cane Toad "Myths" from Rick Shine at:

https://www.canetoadsinoz.com/debunkingcanetoadimpactmyths.html

And more research at:

https://sydney.edu.au/science/biology/shine/canetoad_research/

Beginning in the early 1980's and continuing through to the present day, Rick Shine and his colleagues at the University of Sydney's Tropical Ecology Research Facility have conducted a major research program on reptiles and their prey species on the floodplain of the Adelaide River 60 km east of Darwin.

And as a total aside ... one of the funniest videos I have ever watched:

A funny animation about Cane Toads in Australia ...

Cane Toad - What Happened To Baz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcTxE1ay5SI

:) Sorry if this is a distraction but I still get a laugh every time I see it.

Dazza for PM I reckon. Like his style LOL.

ROFL , yeah what did happen to Baz?

 

Now let me see, what are my thoughts on the cane toad situation

Image result for cartoon about cane toad

well, methinks the chinese are taking over the fish and chip shops and maybe, just maybe Pauline sees a lucrative side business in breeding toads for sale, LOL

LOL Reagan,

Wonder what Ms Hanson thinks

Image result for cartoon of pauline hanson and cane toads

 

Very funny you two :)

Thank you KIAH! Tell the truth I have never heard of the "cobra effect" before now, but have some knowledge of the anaconda plan.

Image result for what is the anaconda plan?

Well, well, you learn something new every day. Thanks for that Ray!

Hell they let one go for Hansen to try and catch -- she had no hope -- hate to see her earn a living by catching these they would out smart her no trouble -- I think they are a lot smarter than her

Is Pauline running a virtual office? I would like to see her interviewed in her office?

Catching cane toads is easy!. Just use a butterfly net and torch! Works for me.

I lived in Queensland in the 70's. My dog died from cane toad poison. After that I found the best way to get rid of them was to sprinkle some washing powder on them. Didn't take long for them to die. I know I will get a lot of comments from the greenies out there, but I don't bloody care they didn't have a dog die and it wasn't pleasant. So if you want to get rid of cane toads try it.

I wonder if the RSPCA has issued a directive to cane toads on the approved politically correct way/s the toads should be using to kill domestic pets and native fauna? 

I heard a cane toad expert speaking on ABC radio a while back. He said that small creatures like snakes and birds generally only eat a small cane toad once which makes them sick and then they learn to never eat another one. They are thus not endangered by the toads. Larger creatures like dogs, dingoes, cats, goanna’s etc eat the larger toads which kill them. When they are on the march to new territory the larger toads lead the way so when they were moving toward Darwin wildlife workers released smaller toads ahead of the bigger ones so that larger creatures eating them would survive and learn to avoid them.

10 cents is not enough, you would have to get a lot of cane toads just to pay for your petrol to go find them once you got all the ones close by.

10 comments



To make a comment, please register or login

Preview your comment