Exam question: Research an invasive species. Write a paragraph telling where it came from, how it came to the new area, why the habitat is suitable for it, and why it is a problem. Include information on how it can be controlled.
THE CANE TOAD
It is astonishing to discern that a creature is sporadically instituted to a far-flung region as a type of biological pest control converted into an invasive species. This state of affairs comes to pass when this animal exponentially multiplies in quantity as well as is completely immune to the indigenous fauna and flora, whereupon it requires an army of essays in annihilation. A Cane Toad is a case in point. This exotic creature, whose natural habitat covers a vast area in South America, has wreaked havoc for Australia dating back to the 1930s. Originally, people first import this non-native creature to Australia as an environmentally sustainable panacea for the ravages of sugar cane caused by two savage kinds of beetle. While the toads may successfully contrive to diminish the widespread damage of the beetles, it also ingests any terrestrial animals into the bargain which are congruent with its revoltingly cavernous mouth around 30cm in length. The relentless expansion of this repulsive destroyer has grown in inordinate numbers that vanquish the aboriginal inhabitants as well as turn nearly 450,000 square miles of Australia into occupied territories, hence it causes an exquisite detestation for the natives. Even more important, the lie of the land has been further inflamed as this amphibian builds up momentum for its full-scale invasion at about 40 to 60 kilometers or thereabouts per year compared with a speed of 10 kilometers per year in the 1960s, which makes Australian’s blood run cold. According to a recent study, the why and wherefores of the perpetual tribulation of the venomous Cane Toads are that the progeny which was reproduced, after a few generations under the process of the natural selection that are obliterated all the hereditary materials determining the anuran to decelerate or to rest, have transubstantiated into the fastest-moving toads studied elsewhere in the world. What is more, the toad’s toxin is lethal to humans, for one bite can release enough potent venom to dispatch a child and a deadly cocktail of bane will even kill a crocodile when it inadvertently swallows a noxious toad for good measure, thus this creature is unsusceptible to any kinds of predacious animals in indigenous wildlife. The local superintendent has executed scores of long-running campaigns to curb the whirlwind multiplication of these troublesome toads – believed to go beyond 200 million, namely finding a toad-eating frog to limit their numbers or simply catching the adult toads at the invasion front. These commendable endeavours, alas, didn’t exterminate or ease up the proliferation of the irksome toads by virtue of its ultimate venomous toxin and mass reproduction - a female can lay about 30,000 eggs or so, which trebles in quantity when comparing to the autochthonous amphibians. Be that as it may, “hope springs eternal” says an old saying, the scientists discovered that a cane toad’s poison is its Achilles’ heel which can be adopted as a revolutionary tactic to culminate the 77-year invasion once and for all. That is to say, the scientists deploy its toxin extracted from the shoulder glands, which repels the others aquatic life, to entice the tadpoles into snare en masse. In this method, people can collect all newborn tadpoles, the toad population will teeter on the brink of elimination on that account. In closing, it is easy to criticize with the benefit of hindsight that introducing the Cane Toad is one of the most conscience-stricken decisions of Australian. Hopefully, with further studies on the toad’s bane, they can sow the seeds of a breakthrough ending the so-called absolute nightmare – Cane Toad.