SEARCH
A great gift
for crisis deniers!
Humoring the Horror of the
Converging Emergencies
94 color pages
$24.99 now $15!
Or read FREE online!
Twitter
Ping this story
in social media:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
NowPublic
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
|
 |
Posted Wed Jun 9 2010: from
BBC:
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Cane toad threat spreads beyond Australia to Caribbean http://apocadocs.com/s.pl?1276085747
Cane toads, one of the world's most destructive invasive species, have started killing native wildlife outside of Australia.
Cane toads are poisonous, secreting a toxin that kills predators not adapted to eat them, and as a result the toads have caused a decline in native Australian reptiles and marsupials.
Now scientists have discovered that the toads are also killing boa snakes in the West Indies, suggesting that other predators in the Caribbean and elsewhere may also be at risk.... In the early to mid 19th Century, the toad was intentionally introduced to islands in the Caribbean, including Jamaica in 1844, and then through the South Pacific.
The toad was introduced to eat and control pests of sugar cane, including rats and beetles.
However, the toad has had a destructive impact in many places where it has spread, out-competing native species.... Now scientists have documented the cane toad killing rare native fauna in the Caribbean.
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
[Read more stories about:
invasive species, predator depletion, unintended consequences]
This item will appear in our PANIQuiz!
|
 |
|
New!:
| |
|
No reader quips yet -- be the first! | |
|
Got a PaniQuip?
|
|
|
We reserve the
right to reuse, remove, or refuse any entry.
| |
|
|
'Doc Michael says:
|
|
|
 |
|
We cane, we saw, we canequored.
|
|
|
|
|
Want to explore more?
Try the PaniCloud!
|
