Cane Toad Captured In Woonona
Illawarra Mercury
Tuesday February 13, 2001
The prospect of cane toads breeding in Wollongong is a step closer following the weekend discovery of one of the detested Queensland critters in a Woonona backyard.
Noelene Clarke, well acquainted with cane toads because she has a daughter who lives in Brisbane and a son at Yamba near the canefields, identified the amphibian (species Bufo Marinus) when her neighbour saw it stalking a mouse in his backyard.
``They're terrible. People don't realise how poisonous they are," Mrs Clarke said yesterday.
Mrs Clarke and her neighbour alerted Wollongong City Council and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), which sent a ranger to fetch it.
The toad, now safely stored in a freezer, has been handed over to the NPWS's frog and tadpole research group experts who are particularly keen to find out what it has been eating.
It is not the first time stowaway cane toads transported south from Queensland have been sighted in Wollongong. Oliver Wady found a cane toad ``hiding out" in his Fairy Meadow backyard at the base of a drain pipe almost two years ago.
NPWS senior pest species ranger Craig Shephard said the service received about 50 cane toad sightings a year in and around Sydney, but up to 70 per cent of these were cases of mistaken identity.
``Generally they are transported in fruit and fresh produce. They are also found in building materials with hollows and in mulch products," he said.
``It's a worry if they do establish a breeding colony because they can do massive damage. They prey on local native species that other frogs feed on.
``They are also a hazard for domestic pets."
© 2001 Illawarra Mercury