Don't Try And Lick The Screen

An Australian documentary on cane toads, in 3D no less, is getting some huge raves at the Sundance Film Festival :

Director Mark Lewis hopes his film -- "Cane Toads: The Conquest" -- will encourage the public to take a different view of the creatures, which are reviled as a pest and a threat to indigenous species in Australia.

It is the second time the Austalian film-maker has investigated the toads, which were introduced to the country in 1935 in a misguided attempt to control beetles ravaging sugar cane fields in the tropical northeast.

"For me, the 3D allowed us to get a point of view closer to the toads and to give a real perspective to the conquest," Lewis told AFP.

"In a way, it's my 'Ava-toads,'" he joked, referring to James Cameron's record-breaking science-fiction film "Avatar."

Avatoads! Brilliant. If those marketing this movie don't run hard with the Avatoads catch line, they're crazy.

What a stunning statistic of the ability of cane toads to infest a new environment - 12 cane toads were released in Australia 75 years ago. There are now estimated to be 1.5 billion.

The 3D doco's director, Mark Lewis, shares his thoughts on why cane toads are not a menace, here.

A reviewer from the LA Times :




I can't find a trailer for Cane Toads : The Conquest, or any footage online. Presumably there will be some soon.


.

Crunchy, Chickeny, Trippy

Can we eat our way out of the environmental destruction wrought by the repulsive Cane Toad?

Maybe. If the cane toad had a value high enough to make it worthwhile spending a night catching the invaders; if as a food product it proved profitable to round them up, gas them, and prepare them for cooking, then we could shut down their spread, wind back their numbers and unleash a new Australian delicacy into restuarants. That is, if you can hold your vomit.

Local food activists are having a hard enough time convincing Australians to get stuck into roo burgers, let alone grinding down on deep fried toad legs.

From the NT News :

Zimmern's chef prepared the toad legs in a garlic and white wine sauce, and deep-fried them with sweet chilli sauce.

Chefs skinned the legs and avoided toxins when preparing them.

They got rid of the most fun part.

Ms Britton said only the bigger toads had legs with enough meat on them to eat, and they were tough and sinewy in the joints.

And what do they taste like? Chicken, of course.

Full Story Here

'Mutant' Cane Toads Spreading Fast Across Australia

'Toadzilla' Caught During "Breeding Frenzy"



It's more than 20cm long. It weighs near on a kilo. The people who caught it weren't far wrong when they described it as being "the size of a small dog".

This is one of the largest cane toads ever found in Australia. A volunteer group called 'Toadwatch' picked it up during a cane toad "breeding frenzy" in the Northern Territory.

'Toadwatch' night patrols see groups of locals hunting down the cane toads and destroying them, as they fight a front line war against the invasion.

So far 'Toadwatch' have had some great successes, capturing and killing hundreds in only a few hours of patrols. In total they've eliminated tens of thousands. While it may be all but impossible to completely eliminate the toads, the volunteers, including mums and dads and kids armed with torches, plastic bags and heavy gloves (the toad's skin is toxic), have managed to keep the toads out of a number of pristine Northern Territory environments.

But the toads are moving in on Darwin. They've reached near plague proportions in some areas of Northern Queensland - where 'toad golf' has long been popular (you simply smash the toad with a golf club) - and the toads have also been spotted just outside of Sydney.

Perth and Adelaide are now said to be within reach.

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

The 861-gram monster male is the largest to be caught anywhere in the Northern Territory, according to environmental group FrogWatch.

The warty pest was picked up by local volunteers during a community toad bust at Lee Point last night.

Measuring 20.5cm in length, the colossal male was one of 39 toads caught in the middle of "a breeding frenzy", said FrogWatch coordinator Graeme Sawyer.

He said NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) ToadBusts were finding low numbers of toads in the city, except for Lee Point and the Coastal Reserve.

First released in Queensland (in 1935 - ed), cane toads have since multiplied and marched across Australia, poisoning millions of native animals, including crocodiles in World Heritage-listed Kakadu.

Northern Territory crocodiles haven't had any natural enemies for millions of years, until the toads arrived. Cane toads are extremely poisonous, and if eaten the toxins are strong enough to knock even a crocodile in a coma-like state. And if you're a croc in the rivers of the Northern Territory and you can't move fast, you're a goner. Other crocodiles will eat you.

A new study from the University of Sydney claims cane toads have "rapidly adapted" to Australian climates over the past 70 years.

Put simply, the toads have evolved, and they've done it fast. It was once believed cane toads didn't have a chance of surviving, or spreading, through environments that were different to the South American habitats from which they originated.

Not so. 'Toadzilla' and his friends are surviving, and evolving, just fine. And they'll spread faster, the more non-tropical Australian environments get warmer, and wetter.

Blame Global Warming. Blame Climate Change.

You might as well. As the 'Toadzilla' story grips the nation, and the world, an GB/CC expert is right now putting together a research paper claiming exactly that.

Does anyone know how to turn cane toads into biofuel?

From news.com.au :

One of the researchers, Professor Rick Shine, said the toads had evolved incredibly quickly because of the rich genetic diversity bestowed by a reproductive cycle in which they lay 30,000 eggs in a single clutch.

Their body shape has changed to enable them to move more quickly and they have become more resilient to cope with much higher temperatures.

“The toads at the invasion front are long-legged, very fast-moving animals and they move every day in pretty much straight lines,” Prof Shine said.

“Compared to the ones in the old populations, which have got relatively short legs and are much less active and tend to meander around.”

There you have it. 'Mutant' Cane Toads are now on the move across Australia.

Arm yourself with a golf club before it's too late.