Toadbusting report by Rod King and Adrienne Meredith

Friday 5-7 January 2007 – Jasper Gorge and Kidman Springs

We arrived at Jasper Gorge campground approximately 10:30pm on a dry night. As we pulled off the Buchanan Hwy, we saw two medium sized toads sitting on the track at the first dip which we ran over. An hour later we observed these toads being consumed by ants. We checked these in the morning to see whether there had been any affect on the ants from the toad’s poison but this appeared to be negative. From 11:30pm we spent a couple of hours toad hunting. In all, we picked up 7 toads, 4 males and 3 females averaging 12 cm in length. They were all found on the track in to the campground and just off to the south side of the track heading towards the derelict cars. No toads, metamorphs or eggs were found along the creek’s foreshore either that night or the next morning.

Regarding native wildlife, there appeared to be similar diversity to that which we observed several months prior. This included 4 or 5 fresh water crocodiles of various ages in the main lagoon at the campground, Whistling Kites, small Hawks and Kingfishers.

The following morning we explored up and downstream of Jasper Creek from the crossing on the Buchanan Highway. Not a great deal of water was present in the creek (mainly shallow waterholes in this area) and there was no sign of toads. We did see many tadpoles which were identified as native.

We moved on to Serpentine Creek where we observed plentiful wildlife around a waterhole. Again Whistling Kites, small Hawks, Kingfishers, Night Herons, monitors and lizards.

We joined the main toadbusting group at Dashwood Crossing, Victoria River Downs Station in the afternoon and this toadbusting activity is described in the report of others.

The following day torrential rain forced us to abandon plans to take the back road to Kidman Springs so we returned via the Buchanan Highway and as the rain stopped we decided to visit the Springs from the other end. No sign of toads, metamorphs or eggs. Not much sign of native wildlife but it was the middle of the day and exceptionally hot.

Even though dusk was falling as we returned down the Buchanan towards Victoria Highway and there was plenty of water on the road, we saw no more than half a dozen toads. From Timber Creek onwards we saw around 20 toads on the Victoria Highway, nearly all male and averaging 10cm in length. There were also many native toads (possibly Great Burrowing) on the Highway but we soon noticed their reflection in the headlights was much lighter than the cane toads in addition to being smaller and not sitting up in that distinctive cane toad manner.

Just to generate discussion we are reporting some of our conversation during the weekend. Other animals abort pregnancy because of all sorts of reasons; extreme dry conditions, lack of food, heat exhaustion, injury etc. Could we upset the pregnancy of the female cane toad in some way? Maybe a rate of insecticide diluted to the extent that it would do little or no damage to other aquatic/semi-aquatic life would have some effect on the pregnancy. In addition, how much notice should we be taking of organisms that ingest cane toads and appear to suffer no ill effects, like ants? Or do they know to avoid the poison glands. Are there any research scientists currently working in this field and can we assist with our observations?