Australian Cane Toads Love The Nightlife

SYDNEY
Poisonous and ugly, Australia’s cane toads are also suckers for nightlife.

Researchers looking for ways to eradicate the toxic toads, introduced from Hawaii in 1935 and now an environmental menace, have found a way to trap them using ultraviolet “disco” lights. The pests have spread in their millions across the tropical north. Cane toads, some as big as dinner plates, can even kill crocodiles and wild dogs with their hallucinogenic venom. Australian scientists have tried for four decades to find a way to eradicate them, with only limited success.

Residents of Queensland state and the Northern Territory have even resorted to golf clubs and cricket bats. But researchers in the Northern Territory have found that ultra-violet “disco lights” are a great way to attract cane toads so that they can be trapped. After experimenting with red and then blue lights, Australia’s Frogwatch “Toad Buster” project found that the “black” light was the most effective way to attract them.

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