6–19 October 2008
Location: Auvergne Cattle Station near Timber Creek, Northern Territory. About 130 km from the WA border
Perth Zoo Field Workers: Brendan McGill and Mitch Farrell (Australian Fauna keepers)
Goals
Cane Toad.
The Great Toad Muster is organised by Stop the Toad Foundation and ran from 20 September to 18 October 2008. About 70 volunteers over four weeks were on hand to collect as many Cane Toads as possible from the wild and help stop their expansion into WA.
Volunteers also collected data on the toads’ sex, size and numbers as well as how they were moving across the land.
Achievements
A total of 69,123 Cane Toads were collected and euthanased over four weeks. Part of this great haul was due to the setting up of Cane Toad fences near water holes.
Mitch Farrell collecting toads.
We were there during the dry season so water was becoming scarce and the toads need water every 3–4 days to survive. Temporary fences were set up to stop the toads from getting to the remaining water.
The fences have wildlife-friendly gates, made of green mesh, at the bottom, allowing access by all other native animals. When the toads came out at night they clustered around these fences and we went along and collected them. The fencing strategy is very efficient and cost effective and only requires a few people to clear the area of toads.
During the muster, the Department of Environment and Conservation brought along their Cane Toad sniffer dog, Nifty, to check over the sites that had been cleared. Nifty only found two toads in one site and one toad in another which is very good news. It means the areas where the muster took place have been cleared of toads.
Highlights
Setting up a Cane Toad fence.
It was great to work with such a dedicated group of people in a beautiful part of Australia. It also felt good to help out on such an important conservation program.
Even though there are many toads still out there, the collection of many thousands of the toads does make a contribution to reducing their numbers near the WA border. The longer we can keep them out of the Kimberley region, the better off wildlife in WA will be.
Challenges
It was very hard work. We had to take the fences down during the day and the temperature was often over 40°C. Then at night, we went out collecting toads by hand.
It was sad to see the lack of wildlife in the areas where we found Cane Toads. Alot of the wildlife we did find was dead, including turtles, Freshwater Crocodiles, birds of prey, monitor lizards and snakes. Of course the native frogs are also suffering severe declines in numbers.
Cane Toads.
Benefits
All field work is beneficial to staff. The conservation and protection of all flora and fauna starts in the wild and going into the field helps you gain a better perspective on what it is we are trying to do and the problems that our wildlife are facing.
You can then bring that back to the Zoo and use that experience to better your work practices and pass on educational information to the public.
