Cane Toad Races in Port Douglas and Cane Toad Golfing?
 

Greetings! Still planning for my June/July Honeymoon to Australia. We will be 1 week in Port Douglas and I have a question/ am curious about cane toad races.

My Lonely planet book says that watching the cane toad races is an activity one can do in Port Douglas. I thought this sounded funny and would like to see it.

However, the book says the toads, "race for their lives". What exactly does this mean? Are the toads executed or eaten if they lose??

If this is the case, I don't want to see the toad races-- if things turn ugly for the toad --say similar to cock fighting.

Also, is there really cane toad golfing? I don't believe it, but the book makes mention to people using the toads as golf balls. Again, this is something I will avoid.

If you have a chance, please let me know about the cane toad races in Port Douglas!

Thank you!!
-Amanda

Hi Amanda,
I would NOT go to see those events.
The Cane Toad is an introduced pest and responsible for the dramatic decline in the numbers of many native animals.
Since it's introduction to Queensland it has spread all the way to the Kakadu Nat. park and bejond.
Although I have not seen those races etc., I strongly suspect it to be part of the erradication program.

Here is a link that maybe of interest:
http://www.frogwatch.org.au/canetoads/default.cfm

You can find more info by searching in Google, http://www.google.com.au

There are many much more pleasant activities for you to enjoy,
Mike

It would take a stronger stomach than mine to eat a cane toad, but they breed 'em tough in North Queensland. At least, that's what they'd like to have us pasty-faced southerners believe. Perhaps there's an idea for a new export industry - frozen toad legs. All we have to do is to convince the Chinese market that they're an aphrodisiac and we're home and hosed.

Cane toad golfing sounds like an urban (or rural) myth but now I'm curious. I'll make enquiries about that one, but Pat will know. In fact she may have a low handicap. I imagine the fairways are pretty short, and putting would be sheer hell.

We have been at the bistro in Port Douglas when the cane toad race was on... it is a every night event at this place (can't remember the name great place for food it has corrigated iron walls & is built to look like an outback building. The Cane toad race is held out the back room $5. entry. lots of people & yelling as the toads are released & the first one to go out of the circle is the winner (they have numbers painted on them.)
I guess its something to do for a half hour .
Cane Toad Golf..these toads are a hugh pest ... I would think some people would use them as a golf ball or run thier cars over them. .....sounds dreadful though.

There is not that much to do in Port Douglas after dark.

No there is no way known you would eat them!

No they are not killed after the race either.

When we were at Wildworld zoo, which Is on the main road between Cairns and Palm Cove area; there were friendly Cane toad races. It was a bit of fun really.
However, I know it is difficult for us animal loving visitors to understand the Australian peoples hatred for these alian creatures. They are considered vermin.
So don't be too shocked or surprised if you see a car swaying all over the road...its not to avoid them but to hit them.

Muck

My North Queensland spy tells me that he wouldn't dismiss the possibility that some citizens might take to the toads with a 5-iron (although he'd favour a wood), but he's quite sure that any attempt to make such a pastime a public event would be quickly closed down on cruelty-to-animals grounds. Looks like another myth.

Mucky, animal-lovers do need to consider the damage being done to native wildlife populations by the dreaded cane toad - it's nothing personal. But it's good to see an animal-lover who's not as selective as most. Cute, furry critters are always more popular than ugly, slimy or scaley beasts. People thinking of their childhood Bambi book will shudder at the thought of eating venison but happily tuck into a fish whose death has almost certainly been more painful than the deer's. I've also heard of overseas attempts to ban the import of kangaroo meat and skins under the naive impression that they're an endangered species - but in reality, I suspect it's mainly because kangaroos are thought to be "cute" - an arguable proposition at best.

Amanda, I guess the message is that many travel writers feel a need to 'sex up' their jottings by emphasising the strangeness or exoticism of the places they describe. At some point this tendency can cross over into outright distortion. I'm not saying that North Queensland isn't a little strange - just not that strange, maybe!

It just occurred to me that cane toad golfing would not be a good course event, more driving range stuff. It's hard to see how you could finish even a par 5 hole, never mind a whole round, on the one toad. Are there are penalties for changing toads?

Thanks everyone for confirming. I just couldn't believe that people would actually use toads for golf balls no matter how awful the toads are. (You certainly wouldn't get any loft with the toad or distance.)

I just had to ask because unfortunately people do strange things to animals (and each other for that matter).

Recently a US man sprayed his cat with pledge duster and put cat nip under the bed and expected his cat to "dust" out the mites or something.

Needless to say the cat was taken away and the man fined....

But if the races are in fun we would watch, just didn't want to support any "toad busting".

Lonely Planet probably shouldn't "sex up" the cane toad so much. : )
-Amanda

Cane toads are disgusting and deadly poisonous, they have no natural enemy and have wiped out many Australian native animals. Unless they are eliminated they will change the cycle of natural life in Australia and beyond.
As a Queenslander, cane toad golfing is a way of life together with spraying Dettol on them - kills them! Another good idea is to get on a deserted road and see how many you can run over with your car tyres.
I am sure that most of you who are saying "Oh dear etc etc" would not blink an eye for killing a cockroach or a blow-fly for instance and they are far less lethal.

Hi Amanda - just to give you an idea of the amount of cane toads proliferating in Queensland and now NT - when we first arrived in Cairns over 10 years ago (we came from Sydney where the toads haven't reached, but they will) we rented a fairly large white painted single story house at a suburban beach with some surrounding bush. One evening there was a sudden invasion of flying insects - termites, I think. In an instant the entire outside of the house was brown - covered all over with millions of these insects. Within 5 minutes the entire base of the house was surrounded with cane toads - there were 1000's of them - not a centimetre between them, gobbling away at the insects. So with proportions like this, you can see they're a huge menace - they're practically invincible. Their eggs and tadpoles are toxic too -cane toads breed in water so we're always fishing them out of our pond to try to save our own native fishes and frogs. So people do run them over and belt them with golf clubs (not for fun, to kill them) I'm a wimp these days so I just freeze them.

G'day Amanda,
Just to clarify a few of your points and others:

1. The Cane Toad Racing occurs at the "Iron Bar", a bar & restuarant, in the main street (Macrossan St.) of Port Douglas each night from Sunday to Thursday. There is usually a kids show at 6.30pm and an adults only at 9.00pm. The toads are not harmed at all during (or after) the show as that would contravine the RSPCA enforced "Animal Cruelty" act which talks about animals in public places.
Most certainly Cane Toads (Bufo marinus) are one of Australias most terrible mistakes and horrible pest species, decimating local wildlife either by eating them (especially our native delicate frogs) or by being eaten and thus poisoning the native animal that tried to score an easymeal.
I myself have been involved in research on the effects of Cane Toads on freshwater crocodile populations in the Northern Territory (see National Geographic tv for more info) and can tell you first hand, they are nothing short of a disaster.
Partially because of this, and partially because of Australians general sense of rough humour, cane toads are killed using a variety of methods including being put in the freezer (endoresed by RSPCA), dettol antiseptic fluid, flattenning with your car and YES, using golf clubs or any other handy implement to quickly dispatch a toad without any unneccesary suffering and with some humour. Personally, I use a long screw driver to skewer them so as to collect the bodies so animals dont get poisoned by them in the morning.
At any rate, to summarise, the Cane Toad racing in Port Douglas has been cleared by the RSPCA, no toads are harmed. Killing toads is absolutely a good thing, some people use a golf club, most dont.
I can personally recommend the Cane Toad racing as a very funny evening, its also quite educational (accurate facts are given about toads) and Id say its the best use of a $5 note in town. Highly recommended.

Fish_Boy, did you ever see a 1987 doco called "Cane Toads: An Unnatural History"? (There's a brief review at http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movie...tml?v_id=76300). It managed to be scary and hilarious at the same time and featured some wonderful North Queensland (human) characters.

One character became so enraged with the toads' assault on the native wildlife that he took to them with a baseball bat. Unfortunately, this had the result of triggering the first victim's poison glands and he was temporarily blinded. Does this suggest that readers should use a nice long No. 1 driver?

I'm told that if you run over them from front to back you get a more satisfying "pop"?

I just got back from my trip last night, and will be posting a trip report later on (when I get organized). Briefly, we took a 3 day trip out of Darwin and on our second night, we saw the cane toads. Yuck! We were not camping, thank god - we were in a motel and had an ensuite bathroom, otherwise I would have been 'holding' it all night! We had to walk through a pile of cane toads to get to our motel room - freaked me out. Lots of wallabies - no fear, but cane toads, as I said, yuck!

I just caught a Tooheys ad....Location, NSW/Qld border. 3 blokes, 3 golf clubs, 3 cane toads.

Susan In Toronto- Why were you afraid of the cane toads? Are they as big as small dogs?
Also, how do you get the toad in the freezer? And once you take it out (eventually-yes?) does it thaw back to life? Cryo-genics - or something?
-Amanda

Amanda _Chicago - I am not really a nature lover, unless it's a mammal or something along those lines. I don't like bugs or reptiles. Cane toads are quite big - we did see some small ones sitting on the steps, but also some larger ones. On our tour, we stopped at a bar in Pine Creek (I think that was the name - I've been in a jetlagged fog since I got home), and the owner (I guess he'd be considered quite a colourful character) showed us a picture of one of the cane toads he had caught - I can't remember how many centimetres, but it was huge! Mind you, it wasn't as big as a small dog (although maybe if the toad stood on its hind legs?).

Hi Amanda - cane toads seem to be a lot smaller than they were years ago - I suppose it's because there's more awareness now of eliminating them and the bigger they are the easier it is to see them. The ones I despatch these days are only from about 4-5" body length - just a plastic bag over the hand, grab them, tie up the bag and freeze. They don't spit venom (as I once read on this post) but they do exude a poison from the shoulder area when stressed, which is why they are so fatal to native animals which try to eat them. However, some birds have learnt to deal with it - they flip the toad on it's back and only eat the stomach area. I have a friend who is vastly interested in such things, she keeps a toad in a cage and feeds it on dog food - she wants to see just how big it will get. Strangely, she's becoming fond of it!

Jeez, I hadn't realized the toads had finally reached Kakadu. What a sad story. I can understand how the early settlers came to introduce pests like rabbits, foxes and pigs to Australia - they didn't know any better. But you would have thought the lesson would have been learned by 1935 when the Queensland government and the cane farmers came up with their brilliant scheme.

RalphR, it was around Katherine that we saw the cane toads, not Kakadu. I don't believe we saw any in Kakadu.