Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Come to Papa

If there's one thing Australians hate more than women or immigrants, it's probably cane toads. They are constantly complaining about how the cane toads are going to destroy the country (unless the immigrants do it first).

You didn't ask for any history, but you are going to get a little bit anyway. Cane toads were introduced to Australia in 1935 to kill some beetles that were harming sugar cane crops. Brilliant idea, I know. This reminds me of a classic Simpsons quote:

"Isn't this a little short sighted? Won't the lizards become an even bigger problem?"
"Then we'll just release wave after wave of Chinese Needle Snakes."
"Aren't the snakes even worse!"
"That's why we've prepared a special gorrilla that feeds on nothing but needle snakes."
"Then we'll be overrun by gorrillas!!!!"
"No Lisa, that's the beauty of it. Come winter, they'll all freeze to death."


Anyway, turns out the toads might have actually found a way to control their population by themselves. It's called cannibalizing their offspring. They are very tricky about it too. Apparently, they wiggle their toes to attract the naive cane toad babies who come close and are quickly snatched and eaten by their backstabbing parents. Harsh.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

i can't remember that last time i read a blog that made me laugh this hard.

Anonymous said...

In Australia, people hit them with golf clubs. I'm not even kidding.