Welcome to Jabiru, the small township located 250 km south east of Darwin in the heart of World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park!
It’s due to the town’s unique location that the currently 1187 residents of Jabiru are restricted by by-laws as to which pets they’re allowed to keep. Two dogs per household are allowed only. No goldfish permitted but fish indigenous to the area, from Lake Jabiru or the Magela Creek system, may be collected by town folks. No other domestic animals or birds are allowed because of the potential threat to the health of indigenous birds and animals in Kakadu National Park. And cats are a most definite no-no!
Yes, occasionally we do see feral cats around Kakadu National Park. But Kakadu’s park rangers do their best to eradicate them, especially in the wet season when cats can be spotted along floodplains and creek margins.
Jabiru is pretty much a cat free zone and there isn’t really a reason why the local supermarket should stock cat food –- or is there?
Just a few weeks ago the exciting findings of a scientific experiment were published in the Journal of Applied Ecology — involving the use of cat food. And it looks like tinned sea food might just be the weapon of choice in the fight against Australia’s most infamous pest: the Cane toad (Bufo marinus)!
In Kakadu the poisonous Cane toad has wreaked havoc among the populations of many native species. Worst hit are the quolls and goannas, frog-eating carnivores that mistake the toads for native frogs. But these toads are actually poisonous enough to kill a mature Freshwater crocodile – and we’ve seen too many Freshies floating belly-up in the creeks since the toads conquered Kakadu in 2001.
Now, what have the scientists actually done?
There’s actually another player in our cat food experiment that I haven’t introduced yet: the native Meat ant (Iridomyrmex reburrus) our real hero!
This aggressive ant species (they can give you a nasty bite!) as the name suggests, loves anything meat. Tinned sea food spread out along the banks of a billabong would be like the invite to a free all-you-can-eat buffet! And here at the water’s edge they find a welcome side dish: young toads that have just emerged from the water!
Cane toads freeze when attacked (a reflex that our native frogs don’t show), easy prey for our the meat-loving ants. Our little antsy heroes are immune to the toad poison and feed on them regularly, But those areas baited with cat food brought on a real feeding frenzy! The scientists found that by attracting more Meat ants to the edge of the wetland areas up to four times more toads lost their lives.
I reckon the scientists might be onto something!
This new strategy is probably not suited to totally eradicate the pest. But maybe we can identify a few more native species that have the potential to keep introduced pests at bay.
I wonder if we’ll see cat food in the pet food section of our local supermarket any time soon…
Boh boh
Anja
Reference:
Using a native predator (the Meat ant, Iridomyrmex reburrus) to reduce the abundance of an invasive species (the cane toad, Bufo marinus) in tropical Australia.
Georgia Ward-Fear, Gregory P. Brown and Richard Shine
School of Biological Sciences A08, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia









