Volunteer ‘toad-busters’ join the hunt for cane toads in bid to protect native wildlife

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Cane toads have been a fixture in northern Australia for much of the last 90 years. Across WA, the NT, and Queensland, volunteers are getting involved in protecting the native wildlife as the introduced species spreads across the continent.

Transcript

00:00Gloves on and buckets at the ready.

00:05It's a humid evening at the Territory Wildlife Park outside of Darwin, but this trainload

00:10of people aren't here for the native animals, they're looking for something else.

00:14When it gets dark we'll go towards the, right on the water's edge, they often just sit.

00:21Cane toads, the feral pest that's now an all too common sight right across northern Australia.

00:27For Joel Mitchell and his family, cane toad hunts at the park have long been a family

00:32favourite outing.

00:33We love looking at critters, we love the top end, we love all the wild and wonderful creatures

00:39at night time.

00:40It's a whole different world at night.

00:41This lagoon is swarming with baby toads at first, but when the sun sets...

00:46Oh, there's one.

00:50Once caught, the toads are counted and weighed and will be humanely disposed of.

00:55We've been out for just under an hour now, we've caught a lot of little baby toads but

00:59no real big ones, but even those little ones will grow up to be big toads, so we're removing

01:04them from the park which will make a big difference.

01:07Sometimes we get a lot and sometimes it's just, they're not around.

01:13A quiet night for these toad busters, but a success nonetheless.

01:18How many toads did you get tonight?

01:20Just one.

01:21Just one?

01:22Yeah.

01:23And it's a big one.

01:24It's a big one, but also it's a good community night.

01:25We get a few people from the local community out and just have a bit of fun and that kind

01:28of thing.

01:29Over the next week, hunts like this are scheduled across northern Australia as part of the Great

01:34Cane Toad Bust, which is back for another year.

01:37The aim of this is to educate Australians on the impacts of cane toads environmentally

01:42as well as they impact domestic pets and agricultural industries.

01:45Pushing back one toad at a time.

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