Question

The cane toad has not yet reached Kakadu National Park in Australia. Many naturalists fear the cane toad's ability to disrupt the pristine ecosystems of this park. Given the cane toad's invasive characteristics, some believe that the only hope to stop the spread of cane toad populations in this region is through a biological control, such as the Introduction of a nonnative natural predator of the cane toad. Why might this idea be troubling? The deliberate introduction of another nonnative species could further disrupt Australia's ecosystems. The introduced nonnative species might become a successful cane toad predator

Answer 1

A predator is an organism that consumes or kills other organisms as it's food.For example, the tiger is the predator of deer, cow, buffalo, etc.The invasive character means it can kill the local inhabitants( small animals, insects etc).It is of great concern to maintain an ecosstem. an ecosystem has biotic and abiotic components. The abiotic components include land,air and water while the biotic components are plants,animals and humans. An ecosystem gets disrupted due to the introduction of a non-native species. The non-native species can target other organism as well apart from the traditional existing organism. For example, a new type of fish can target more than one type of smalller fish as its food. Due to this activity, all the targeted fish communities suffer a decrease in numbers. If, by chance, the existing predator of this killer fish falls in shortage, the ecologists will have to opt for the introduction of a new predator.

The deliberate introduction of a non-native predator will definitely reduce the cane toad population, but on the other hand in case the cane toad population falls short of number, the local population will be affected adversely. In that case the flora and fauna will be affected.

Thus, the introduction of non-native species can lead to the following circumstances:

• It may not survive in this new environment due to it's content, food habits, salinity etc
• Its reproduction rate will be so high that the cane frog population will no doubt be controlled, in addition the other local populations are also hampered
• There can be mixed breeding so the purity of local species population is hampered, which in some way or the other will hamper the eco-system.
• It can be physically much superior to the other predators so that there will be a case of struggle for existence, due to which a species can become vulnerable.

If we consider the consumption of cane toad by its non native predator as a food chain, then green plants will consume or use solar energy, smaller organisms will consume the leaves of the plant species, these smaller organisms will in -turn be consumed by the cane frogs. If there are no natural predators of this frog, the only option to control it's population will be to introduce non-native species as a predator. This predator can by any chance consume local species as well in addition to the frog. The entire community will get disturbed. Efforts have to be made to control this predator. If a question arises of the increasing number of this predator, seere control measures have to be adopted. New species have to be opted for.