Australia's rabbit plague is not over, another more terrible animal is flooding Australia, it is huge and highly venomous, crocodiles can not do anything about it, poisonous snakes encounter it to avoid three points. This kind of animal that frightens Australia is the sea toad, which "kills all sides" in Australia, and even some people die. Why does Australia always introduce these very dangerous species? Sea toads are huge, can they be eaten?
What the sea toad is sacred
The giant sea toad is the largest toad in the world, reaching a length of up to 17 centimeters in adult life, while the largest living in Sweden has a staggering length of 38 centimeters, a length of 54 centimeters after extending limbs, and a weight of more than 5 pounds, which has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest toad in the world. Sea toads are ugly in appearance, their bodies are generally tan, and like many toads, their bodies are covered with bulging knots, which look very penetrating. Although it is disliked for its ugly appearance, the sea toad is actually a beneficial animal. Native to the Americas, sea toads destroy a large number of pests in sugarcane fields and ensure a bumper crop, so they are also called cane toads. Australia introduced the sea toad in order to eliminate native pests, but the Australians ignored a very important problem, causing the sea toad to flood and change it from a "beneficial insect" to a "pest".
Why australia introduced sea toads
Australia is one of the most ecologically friendly regions in the world, so it is also called "animal paradise" and has many unique and rare animals. But because of this, Australia's ecology is very fragile, and alien species can easily flood and cause ecological disasters. So why were sea toads introduced to Australia? This also starts with australian sugar cane. Sugarcane is an important cash crop in Australia, because of the abundant light and fertile water, the sugarcane produced here is very popular, and it is made into sucrose and exported to all over the world. One of the biggest nemesis of agricultural production is insect pests, and Australia's sugarcane has been eroded by various pests, and production has declined all the way. In order to protect their income, cane farmers tried many ways, but the results were not ideal, until 1934, a successful case of pest control was published in the journal Nature, which triggered a wave of imitation in Australia. The solution offered in this case is the introduction of sea toads.
Sea toads are good and bad
In 1935, Australian cane farmers tentatively introduced 120 sea toads, and in order to prevent large-scale biological invasions, cane farmers also carefully released these sea toads in remote areas and adopted captivity methods. As soon as the sea toad entered the cane field, the pests that had previously caused headaches for cane farmers were swept away, and the sugarcane of that year was also harvested. The sea toad's superior insect control effect was recognized by cane farmers, who were quickly released into important sugarcane-producing areas. Overwhelmed by the abundant harvest of sugarcane, they did not find that sea toads were no longer satisfied with eating only pests, and began to exert their claws on Australia's native animals.
Sea toads are super reproductive, they do not have a clear mating season, they can breed all year round, a female sea toad can ovulate 30,000 eggs at a time. Australia does not have a natural predator of sea toads, and their numbers are growing wildly. Soon Australia's small rodents, snakes and various lizards, birds have become a good meal for sea toads, which spread wildly to the Australian interior at a rate of tens of kilometers per year, and other animals have been killed and injured everywhere they go, and have become a terrible invasive species.
Why sea toads can walk sideways in Australia
The huge size of the sea toads allows them to easily hunt other small animals, and they are never picky about eating anything, like wolves that jump into a flock. In addition to their size, sea toads have a very deadly hazard, that is, they carry highly poisonous bodies. Sea toads have two venom glands behind their eyes, and when they encounter danger, they will spew out a milky white venom from inside, which is very toxic, which leads to another serious problem, Australia's crocodiles, foxes, pythons and other top predators wanted to have a good meal, and they were directly poisoned to the ground.
People's pet cats, pet dogs will lick and bite sea toads because of curiosity, which has also led to many tragedies. The surface of the sea toad secretes a toxin with a hallucinogenic effect, and the pet will become ethereal after eating, just like the "addict", these toxins will damage their brain nerves, very dangerous. To avoid pet recruitment, Australia has even set up a pet addiction agency to spend hundreds of dollars to save poor pets. Australians never imagined that the sea toad could change from more than a hundred today's billions, and the sea toad has become one of Australia's most difficult invasive species.
How Australia deals with sea toads
Australians hate sea toads to the bone, and they have thought of many ways to deal with sea toads, including directly crushing them with trucks, shooting them with special weapons, and euthanizing them to professional institutions, but most of them are palliative rather than curative.
Some people have proposed to solve these ugly guys with biological weapons, but with the experience of the hare, Australia is afraid to create an even more terrible "disease-resistant toad". It has also been suggested that it is possible to introduce the predator of sea toads, but will the introduction of new species lead to the invasion of new species?