Disappearing Bees and Now Queensland's Mutant Toads
Mutant toads found at Gladstone
Monday, 03/05/2010
Researchers in Central Queensland are trying to find out why tens of thousands of cane toads have abnormalities.
Almost 10 per cent of toads found around the port city of Gladstone have things like missing toes and extra limbs.
CQ university researcher Dr Scott Wilson says the race is on to try to determine why the city has such an elevated rate of mutant toads.
"Things like pesticides, herbicides, nutrients like nitrates, phosphorates and things like coal dust and other chemicals can induce these abnormalities," he says.
"So it could be a cocktail of chemicals or it could be one particular one, so that's one thing that we're going to look at next."
Monday, 03/05/2010
Researchers in Central Queensland are trying to find out why tens of thousands of cane toads have abnormalities.
Almost 10 per cent of toads found around the port city of Gladstone have things like missing toes and extra limbs.
CQ university researcher Dr Scott Wilson says the race is on to try to determine why the city has such an elevated rate of mutant toads.
"Things like pesticides, herbicides, nutrients like nitrates, phosphorates and things like coal dust and other chemicals can induce these abnormalities," he says.
"So it could be a cocktail of chemicals or it could be one particular one, so that's one thing that we're going to look at next."