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History of the Orchid Pavilion
Editor|History of the Orchid Pavilion
In 1935, in order to solve the problem of sugar cane pests in Australia, an Englishman traveled thousands of miles by ship to bring back 105 sea toads from South America.
However, the mythical "sugar cane toad" that was rumored in South America did not care about it after arriving in Australia, but crawled all over northern Australia.
It was years later that Australia learned they had been tricked, but in the face of 1.5 billion sea toads that could only keep crocodiles away, they could only cry.
So, what is so special about this toad that can dominate Australia? And how did it go from a cure to a big problem for Australians?
The Australian continent can flood with anything
When it comes to Australia's flooded sea toads, we have to mention the magical land of Australia.
Because the Australian continent is one of only two continents in the world that is completely surrounded by seawater, it has long lost its species ties with the northern hemisphere continent and other continents.
As a result, Australia's unique biological systems have emerged. It became a sacred place for marsupials, with vast land and no large carnivores.
Australian animals are born without natural enemies and a sense of worry, and once a new species from the outside world comes in, it is simply a tiger into the flock, and everything is flooded.
Far from it, the British brought the first rabbit to Australian soil in the 18th century for fun. At first, it was only used as a rabbit, but after breeding too fast, some rabbits bit off the fence, successfully "escaped" and fled into the wild.
At first, people didn't take it too seriously, but the Australian ecology never thought that there would be such a multiplying species. In just a few decades, the size of rabbits in Australia has reached tens of billions.
Swept the grassland in groups, and even without the threat of natural enemies, the size was getting bigger and bigger, once invading the human activity area, and the local native species were bullied to "run away".
Seeing that the ecosystem itself could not mediate, human beings began to actively intervene, all kinds of hunting, all kinds of expulsion. The "human-rabbit war" lasted for more than 100 years, but the result was that the rabbits killed more and more.
Similar floods of alien species do not only occur in rabbits, but also include foxes, wild goats, wild boars and so on.
But compared with the sea toad, it is really a small witch.
The largest toad in the world
The scientific name of the sea toad is, giant sea toad. Usually, the body length can grow to more than 15 cm, the largest can even be close to 30 cm, and the weight can reach several pounds.
Although this size is a well-deserved giant in the toad, it is actually not enough to look at the entire natural world.
So why can it upset the chicken dogs of the whole of Australia?
In fact, the main reason is because it has a unique trick that traverses nature, that is, poison.
Although everyone knows that toads are poisonous, they are one of the so-called five poisons of the people. However, everyone has the impression that the toxicity of toads is still limited, but the toxicity of sea toads is extraordinary.
Behind its eyes and on the dorsal side of the eardrum, a pair of clearly protruding paraauricular glands on the left and right, filled with venom, which is often called toad crisp.
And the skin and other glands on its back also contain toxins, and the most infuriating thing is that its entire life stage from the fertilized egg that has just been laid to the complete body is all in a toxic state.
Not only do individual individuals have innate protective measures, but the life adaptability of sea toads is still tenacious as thieves. They originally lived in Central and South America.
Although the name has a sea character, in fact, their living range does not need to have seawater, but when spawning and breeding, they need to go to the side of the water, whether it is fresh water or seawater.
In fact, they can actually live in an environment spanning 4 to 42 degrees, and most of the time they are active on land, which is a veritable amphibian.
So, obviously it is a species in Central and South America, and it is not like rabbits and the like that can be kept as pets, how did the original British people have a hot brain, thinking of this "ugly thing" brought to Australia?
Foreign "monks" chant
It has to be said that at the beginning of the last century, with the popularization and development of global industrialization in Europe and the United States, the item of cane sugar has completely become a sought-after commodity.
Where there are interests, there must be capitalists with a keen sense of smell. In 1914, the British began small-scale sugar cane cultivation in Wales.
Due to Australia's good weather conditions and vast land is too suitable for cultivation, the sugar cane cultivation area has continued to expand in the following 20 years, and Australia has become the world's major sugar producer.
However, everyone knows that sugarcane, a crop from root to stem, is also extremely susceptible to pests and diseases because of its sugar content. At this point, it fully reflects that more than people like sweet things, even insects are no exception.
Although this is the law of nature, since it is grown as a cash crop, it is necessary to consider how to eliminate pests and diseases.
At that time, biochemistry was not as powerful as it is today, and various drug sprays for pests and diseases had not been developed, and the only indigenous solution they could think of was to treat things with things.
But how can a species that can eliminate pests in the sugarcane fields without harming the sugarcane itself, so easy to find?
So capital has set its sights on a global scale to find, don't say, there is really good news coming back. Sugar cane plantation owners in Central and South America recommended a magical animal, the sea toad.
Don't look ugly, but eating pests is called a fast and accurate. And it is especially easy to feed, only there are dozens of them in the manor, and the rest are left alone, they will quickly multiply themselves and sweep away the nearby pests.
At first, the British were a little skeptical of this statement, until 1933, when the journal Nature published an article entitled "The contribution of the sugar cane toad" to the sugar industry, and the British were completely convinced.
In addition, in 1935, Australian sugar cane pests and diseases led to a large reduction in local production. In order to rush to the hospital, the British brought 105 American sea toads to Australia through cruise ships, and affectionately called them sugar cane toads.
After the sugar cane toads arrived in the area, they were first concentrated to raise and breed, and soon expanded to more than 60,000. Sugar cane owners throughout Queensland came to take a large number of toads and bring them back and release them.
They are expecting that these "cuties" will help them eliminate pests, but the reality is to slap these people in the face.
Since the pests in the sugarcane field are mainly gray-backed beetles, such beetles often lay their eggs 20-30 cm underground, gnaw the roots of sugarcane from birth, and fly directly to the top of the sugarcane stalk when they grow up, and eat the leaves.
However, the weight of the "sugar cane toad" determines that it is difficult for it to jump high, let alone reach the gray-backed beetle at a high place.
Obviously, relying on toads to cure diseases and pests is an unreliable method, so why did it work in Central and South America in the first place, and a research paper was published?
It turned out that the reduction of pests and diseases in middle and South America was not the credit of sugarcane toads, but only the death of pests and diseases caused by local natural weather changes, and the thesis research also rarely ignored this consideration.
A big oolong that turned the British around. But while things proved unreliable, Australians didn't take it too seriously. Just add a little new vitality to the species of the Australian continent.
However, they really underestimated the power of the sugarcane toad and overestimated the fighting power of Australia's native species.
1.5 billion invincible toads
Within a few years, Australians discovered that things were far from as simple as they thought. Even the toad problem seems to be more tricky than the rabbit problem back then.
Due to the strong reproductive ability of this sea toad, females can lay 8,000-30,000 eggs at a time, and all year round are in the breeding period.
Because it is an alien species, the toxins it carries are completely unresistant to Australian native species, nor do they have any targeted antibodies, which is simply catastrophic for the local ecology.
And it is not as vegetarian as a rabbit, it eats everything, from small insects to birds, vertebrates, and even human remnants, as long as it can be swallowed with its mouth, all of them will not refuse.
At first, it was stocked in sugar cane forests, but the flying pest could not satisfy its appetite and began to expand outward. When I came to the outside world, it was like being in heaven.
Large animals, even pythons and crocodiles will be poisoned by the toxins on their body surfaces, not to mention some small animals. Unknowingly, the humble species of the sea toad has actually become the overlord of the Australian continent.
And its brutality does not stop there, every breeding period, a large number of male sea toads begin to fight, court, hold eggs. However, the proportion of female sea toads is relatively small.
This also led to a large number of male sea toads that could not find mates, and they began to climb on pythons and even crocodiles to hold eggs regardless.
Because pythons and crocodiles have all tasted the poison of toads, they can also choose to swallow their anger and let the toads come in the face of this behavior of riding faces.
This also shows a rare picture of a toad riding a snake.
Of course, the harm of sea toads is not just talk, there are detailed data to prove that after the introduction of sea toads in 1935, Australia's crocodile and python species have plummeted by more than 70%, and even birds in the air have plummeted.
As sea toads breed more and more, the size is now close to 1.5 billion. They are expanding southward at a rate of about 15 kilometers per year.
Everywhere they went, not only animals suffered, but also cats, dogs, and pets raised by humans.
It's not that Australians haven't thought about managing and eliminating these sea toads, but it's too difficult to actually operate. Although the government issued rewards for killing and encouraged the people and the military to participate in the killing, the effect was minimal.
Today, the ubiquitous toads in northern Australia seriously affect people's daily lives. Fortunately, nature is fair and there is biological evolution.
Now more than 80 years later, some local species have learned to be smart, they will also distinguish the non-toxic parts of the body of sea toads, and now some crows know that there is no problem eating sea toads' tongues, internal organs, and belly belly.
But these are still too small compared to the continuous new breeding of sea toads. At present, the sea toad is still the number one problem among Australian invasive species.
postscript
It is estimated that no one would have thought that the 105 toads that they brought with them could actually cause such a big trouble.
For nature, we humans are really not omnipotent, and we need to be more in awe of the world in life.