Sustainable Ecosystem Strategies
As the Cane Toads are a huge problem to most ecosystems in the north of Australia, measures must be taken to remove the Cane Toads according to strategies that would actually work. One way of doing such a thing is by using a method called 'teacher toads'. This is fundamentally the capturing of Cane Toads, and the injection of viruses into them in which would not kill their predators when consumed, but rather cause them to gain illness. This teaches the predators that they should not consider the Cane Toads as prey and are an animal that is not to be consumed. This method is great as it does not result in the death of the subjects.
The Cane Toads initially came from South and Central America. It is assumed that the secret to the Cane Toads success in Australia is
the absence of applicable diseases and viruses. These diseases and viruses were left in South and Central America. The CSIRO conducted research on the diseases and viruses that affect Cane Toads in South and Central America in the hope of bringing some of them to Australia to 'kill off' the Cane Toads. Unfortunately,it was discovered that such diseases and viruses would also kill the native
frogs in Australia.
Another idea, in terms of 'destroying' all of the Cane Toads that reside in Australia, is to genetically engineer a virus that would be released into the environment and would consequently kill the Cane Toads. It is thought that scientist may be able to distinguish the genetic differences between Cane Toads and frogs, and therefore construct a virus that would only affect Cane Toads. The CSIRO has found a 'natural' virus, and are currently attempting to modify it to do what the population of Australia wants; kill the Cane Toads. The essential idea of this virus is to 'trick' the immune systems of the Cane Toads into thinking that the adult Cane Toad proteins are exotic, and therefore setting up an attack on the toads as the tadpoles develop into toadlets. Problem with this kind of virus are that it could someday turn on to frogs as they have a similar genetic construction to toads and the virus could potentially spread to other continents. This would be rather detrimental as every continent on this planet, other than Antarctica, contains a population of toads. Toads are only a problem in Australia, so it would be an ecological disaster for toads in their natural environment to be killed.
If a virus were to be constructed, it could be of many kinds. One kind that was proposed is a virus in which Cane Toads can only produce male toads. Over time, this would remove the ability of the species to reproduce as a male and female toad is needed to reproduce. If this virus were to be released into the environment, there would be no males. Furthermore, if the full results of this virus were to occur, the Cane Toad population in Australia could, perhaps become extinct. Also, it has been 'put on the table' by another scientist, that large amounts of male Cane Toads could be captured made sterile. These toads would then be released back 'into the wild', and would hopefully outnumber the fertile males in terms of mating, therefore causing the eggs laid by the females to be infertile. However, this method is highly speculated by many as they no do seem
to find logic in the fact that adding to the population of Cane Toads could actually decrease the population of Cane Toads.
The Cane Toads initially came from South and Central America. It is assumed that the secret to the Cane Toads success in Australia is
the absence of applicable diseases and viruses. These diseases and viruses were left in South and Central America. The CSIRO conducted research on the diseases and viruses that affect Cane Toads in South and Central America in the hope of bringing some of them to Australia to 'kill off' the Cane Toads. Unfortunately,it was discovered that such diseases and viruses would also kill the native
frogs in Australia.
Another idea, in terms of 'destroying' all of the Cane Toads that reside in Australia, is to genetically engineer a virus that would be released into the environment and would consequently kill the Cane Toads. It is thought that scientist may be able to distinguish the genetic differences between Cane Toads and frogs, and therefore construct a virus that would only affect Cane Toads. The CSIRO has found a 'natural' virus, and are currently attempting to modify it to do what the population of Australia wants; kill the Cane Toads. The essential idea of this virus is to 'trick' the immune systems of the Cane Toads into thinking that the adult Cane Toad proteins are exotic, and therefore setting up an attack on the toads as the tadpoles develop into toadlets. Problem with this kind of virus are that it could someday turn on to frogs as they have a similar genetic construction to toads and the virus could potentially spread to other continents. This would be rather detrimental as every continent on this planet, other than Antarctica, contains a population of toads. Toads are only a problem in Australia, so it would be an ecological disaster for toads in their natural environment to be killed.
If a virus were to be constructed, it could be of many kinds. One kind that was proposed is a virus in which Cane Toads can only produce male toads. Over time, this would remove the ability of the species to reproduce as a male and female toad is needed to reproduce. If this virus were to be released into the environment, there would be no males. Furthermore, if the full results of this virus were to occur, the Cane Toad population in Australia could, perhaps become extinct. Also, it has been 'put on the table' by another scientist, that large amounts of male Cane Toads could be captured made sterile. These toads would then be released back 'into the wild', and would hopefully outnumber the fertile males in terms of mating, therefore causing the eggs laid by the females to be infertile. However, this method is highly speculated by many as they no do seem
to find logic in the fact that adding to the population of Cane Toads could actually decrease the population of Cane Toads.