Lead
In 1944, a farmer in Australia discovered that the sugar cane he grew was plagued by a small insect called the sugar cane beetle.
His study of the insect found that the larvae of the sugarcane beetle feed on the roots of the cane, causing the cane to grow properly and eventually wither.
The farmer tried several methods but failed to eradicate the larvae.
In the thirties of the last century, a scientist proposed a method of spraying pesticides to eliminate this larvae, so the farmer sprayed the pesticides according to the test, and although the larvae were eliminated, the sugarcane was also sprayed to death, and the farmer suffered heavy losses.
For this reason, he came up with the idea of introducing an animal that could destroy insect eggs to prey on sugar cane beetles.
Introduction of alien species.
So he applied to the government to introduce an alien species, the giant sea toad, because the giant sea toad looks almost the same diameter as a fist in appearance, and its weight is about two kilograms, and it has two vesicles in its neck, which secrete filth that can poison predators.
And the giant sea toad will also lay tens of thousands of eggs to reproduce.
The introduction of the giant sea toad makes the smaller larvae of the sugarcane beetle very less affected by the virulence and toxicity, and the larvae of the sugarcane beetle shed their skin less often, because when the larvae cannot absorb the toxin of the giant sea toad, they will gradually form antibodies to the giant sea toad toxin and grow, while the relatively large larvae shed their skin more often, so they can absorb more giant sea toad toxin and die.
It can be seen that the giant sea toad has excellent insecticidal properties.
The government agreed with the farmer and introduced tens of thousands of giant sea toads to hunt for more in order to eradicate the beetles on a larger scale.
However, this decision laid the foundation for future ecological disasters, because although the giant sea toad is very fertile and not small, it is so closely related to water that in the nearly ten years since it was introduced to Australia, the number has only reached 100,000.
Fortunately, the giant sea toad's invincible predatory ability still played a role in preying on beetles, and slowly, the farmer found that the number of beetles in the field was gradually decreasing, but he did not know that this decision had already planted the seeds of the disaster.
Because the giant sea toad does not have natural enemies like other ecological animals, it will prey on it and control the balance of the population, so the majority of farmers use the giant sea toad as a means of protection for pest control.
The giant individual of the giant sea toad is clumsy and difficult to catch on the one hand, and is not easy to prey on by farmers due to its size.
As a result, under these two major concerns, farmers gradually bred the behavior of farmers not to catch giant sea toads, but let the giant sea toads gradually multiply a large number of clams unknowingly.
Once, a farmer near Sydney, Australia, was repairing his farm house, but found that his home had been unknowingly occupied by giant sea toads, and there were a huge number of giant sea toads in the house, he was immediately frightened, and then began to drive away these giant sea toads, but the number of giant sea toads was too many, and he did not drive all the giant sea toads out of the house with great difficulty, and finally had to let them mate and breed naturally.
The next year, the farmer looked back and found that there were indeed a lot of giant sea toads missing in his home, but some of the giant sea toads had turned into eggs, so he drove the remaining eggs away, but what he never expected was that the number of giant sea toads in his home had increased significantly.
Giant sea toads are so fertile that they can produce 100,000 eggs in just one year, and although some eggs are driven out, there are still enough clams left to breed.
The numbers are seriously out of control.
In the sixties, due to the introduction of a large number of giant sea toads, the number of giant sea toads in Australia has exceeded millions, greatly exceeding the number when they were introduced ten years ago, and due to ecological imbalance, giant sea toads have no natural enemies to control their numbers, and their numbers have reached tens of millions ten years later.
And the giant sea toad is very widespread around the world, they are not only widely distributed and have strong ecological reproduction ability, and in some areas have even become a pest species.
In Australia, when the phenomenon of giant sea toad flooding occurs from time to time, because the giant sea toad has played a good role in restraining sugarcane beetles after the introduction of giant sea toads, it has been paralyzed and still has not stopped the predation of giant sea toads.
The rapid growth of the giant sea toad population not only affects the growth of crops, but also threatens the survival of native animals.
Giant sea toads have a ferocious predatory nature, almost no native animals will be the opponent of giant sea toads to prey, and because their fresh meat is highly poisonous, it is the death period of native animals after a full meal, and the death of native animals makes it impossible for them to reproduce the population and give birth to new offspring.
The effects of the giant sea toad are not limited to this, despite their large size, their eggs are imperceptible, and this concealment makes it difficult for many animals to detect, even their owners.
Owners who have pet dogs abroad have found that their pet dogs have to poop almost every day, but the amount of feces has not increased significantly at any time, which shows that pet dogs should have eaten the clams eggs and quietly excreted them.
But the most terrifying thing is the ability of giant sea toads to reproduce, and the number of giant sea toads in Australia at that time has reached 1.5 billion, second only to the population of Australia!
At the top of the food chain, the giant Australia sea toad has no qualms about sprinkling its breeding offspring in every corner of Australia, and the eggs of the giant sea toad have eaten even most of Australia's animal species.
The whole country catches toads.
The proliferation of alien species has naturally attracted the attention of the government, but the government's repeated number removal of giant sea toads has not been effective, in addition to the measures to remove giant sea toads, the government has also imposed a heavy reward on each giant sea toad caught, but this measure does not seem to be very attractive to farmers, because the number of giant sea toads has caused a lot of trouble to farmers, and farmers are not uncommon to hunt again.
Even when the heavy bounties were offered to the peasants, the quantities were not controlled.
As the giant sea toad population gets out of control further, seriously affecting the survival of native animals and ecology, as well as affecting the economic income of farmers, farmers are demanding that the government take further measures to remove the giant sea toad.
The government decided to place obstacles about one meter high, about 40 centimeters wide and 50 meters long in major cities to prevent giant sea toads from going to cities and fields.
At first, the farmers accepted the plan and controlled the giant sea toad population for a while, but over time, the farmers became bored with the plan and began to gradually become reluctant to hunt the giant sea toad, and the giant sea toad population got out of control again, and even became the second largest in the world.
The first position is Brazil, because when Brazil once introduced giant sea toads to control sugarcane beetles, the government introduced too large numbers, resulting in the uncontrolled spread of giant sea toads, and the people of Brazil suffered from this.
epilogue
As countries around the world have failed to manage the population of giant sea toads, the giant sea toad has become the king at the top of the food chain in Australia and Brazil.
It has to be said that the blanket introduction of alien species to control native species is not a wise decision, the lack of natural predators is an important reason for the dominance of giant sea toads, and the introduction of this uncontrolled species to other countries for breeding will also have an impact on the local ecology.
For the treatment of alien species, the government should make a more comprehensive and long-term ecological assessment, not just a temporary measure.
Science and technology are the key to solving this problem, and gene editing technology has the potential to be used to control the reproduction of alien species, so as to restore ecological balance.
At the same time, strengthening ecological protection education and raising public awareness of the impact on alien species will help prevent future ecological disasters.
In the context of accelerating globalization, international cooperation may also play a key role in controlling the spread of alien species.
Future ecological restoration efforts should consider establishing an ecological balance, rather than relying solely on capture or extinction strategies.