Poisonous cane toads invade Taiwan
Taiwan is striving through environmentalists to avert an invasion by poisonous cane toads.
Environmentalists in Taiwan’s Nantou County are making every effort to contain an outbreak of the poisonous, invasive cane toad species.
France 24 has reported that members of the Taiwan Amphibian Conservation Society are on the vanguard of the fight, as they wade through rice fields and vegetable patches to capture these invasive amphibians.
Considering that the toads are most active after the sun goes down, the groups are conducting night patrols too.
Cane toads, which originate from South and Central America, have always posed a threat across the Pacific Rim where they have been introduced, most notably in Australia, the Philippines, and parts of the US, according to a France 24 report.
Their toxicity can be lethal, so keep your dogs away from them, as they may curiously try to bite or lick them.
Despite that their current number still seems low, with about 200 caught in recent weeks, environment officials are worried that if this phenomenon is not addressed well, the country could witness a drastic increase in their number, thus swarming the country in such tough times.
Toads are considered fortuitous in Taiwan, which may hamper the mission to combat their invasion, with some farmers not recognizing their presence as a threat to the local ecosystem.
A report by the Washington Post shows that the original number of toads in the northern parts of Australia was 102. They were brought into the country in the 1930s by cane farmers to help subdue beetles that were eating their crops. Within a few decades, the total number spiked to between an estimated 200 million to 1.5 billion.