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Methodology

Scientists are currently researching into gene modification technology which is creating a generation
of cane toads that only give birth to male toads and to develop a strain of ‘daughterless cane toads’.
Which are toads that can only give birth to sons “This would be a non-toxic and humane way of
bringing about a population decline, and has no impact on any other species or environment.” Said
by Professor Koopman from the university of Queensland institute for molecular bioscience. “All of
the offspring of this genetically engineered toad would thus be male, and they would all be carrying
the daughterless gene.” As the new generation will contain more and more males who cannot
produce female toads, the number of females is reduced and will therefore reduce the number of
cane toads in the next generation.

Work Cited:

"Killing off the Cane Toad." Institute for Molecular Bioscience - The University of Queensland,
Australia. Web. 05 May 2011. <http://www.imb.uq.edu.au/index.html?page=48437>.

"Solution to the Cane Toad Plague?" Mygreenaustralia.com. 13 May 2010. Web. 5 May 2011.
<http://www.mygreenaustralia.com/2010/05/solutions-to-the-cane-toad-plague/>.

Methodology

Physical methods of toad control would be to fence pounds and slow moving streams where toads
are most likely to inhabit. Unfortunately, the fencing prevents other animals from drinking from the
pond. Therefore this is not an option. Creating toad traps and destroying eggs would be the cheapest
way to curb the population. This is suggested to be done by the locals and individuals of Queensland
as it will slightly help to reduce the number of toads in an area.

A Scientific method that is currently being used (and a bit of background information)

In 1969, a paper was introduced and was a describing the effects of inoculating Bull frogs tadpoles
with genes (haemoglobin in the adult blood) (Maniatis et al. 1969). And with surprising results,
was a death of a number of tadpoles and the number of tadpoles that did survive produced no
haemoglobin that adult or tadpole normally have. But instead produced a variant
haemoglobin that appeared to be neither adult nor tadpole. Weakening it, and also it interferes
with the tadpoles metamorphosis.
 
They tried to do that with Cane Toads (since it was so successful with Bull Frogs), and it worked,
toadlets were smaller with a few number of deaths. They would get through metamorphosis but
with interesting results.
 
 
 
 
 

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