Jaunted

Animals

A Beer for a Toad in Queensland

February 27, 2007 at 10:19 AM | 0 Comments

One of the greatest pests in Australia is not whinging Pommie tourists or even travelers insisting on drinking Fosters (true Aussies never do), but in fact an import from Hawaii called the cane toad. While the plan (some 70 years ago) was to introduce cane toads so they'd eat pesky cane beetles, it all went awry and cane toads are now a natural disaster, causing environmental havoc in Australia and especially in the state of Queensland.

Various schemes have been put into place to solve the toad problem, but the best one is the latest: a beer for a toad. A rich Queensland pub owner has backed a plan to start a bounty system: bring a bag of cane toads in, get a beer in return. Apparently the system has already worked in the nearby Northern Territory. But if you're thinking of holidaying in Queensland just for the free beer, you should know two things: these cane toads are incredibly ugly, and there's a limit on how many beer vouchers you can get per day.

[Photo: antheap]

Related Stories:
· Beer Bounty for Cane Toads [The Australian]
· Toad Hunters Offered Beer Bounty [ABC Online]