Adventure Ausrama Blog

Biology: Red reef lobster caught in Western Australia. It is common knowledge that lobsters do not have hair. We all know this. However, hairy lobsters do exist and one has been caught in Western Australia. The red reef lobster is common in the waters of Madagascar, Hawaii, and African countries. Finding it off WA is a real surprise. The fisherman who caught it has never seen anything like it in his life. It seemed to be a prawn, lobster, scampi hybrid. The hairy red is much different from Australian lobsters: it has crab-like claws. Biologists do not believe that it came all the way from Africa, at least not in recent times. They hold that it has been here all along living and breeding in a localized, remote spot. The one caught probably strayed away from its locality. Obviously, its normal range must be reasonably close. Being elusive, scientists are not going on a hunt. The creature will be left alone. ◆ Biology by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Adventure Australi...

At last - a solution to Australia's can toad problem. Decades ago the pest was introduced from Hawaii to combat bugs that were attacking sugar cane, but instead of eating the target beetles the cane toads went about settling down here and have been destroying the native habitat ever since. Cane toads have recently reached Perth in Western Australia. Now they are established in every Australian state. Everything has been tried to kill them from hitting them with sticks, gassing them with carbon dioxide, to freezing them. None of this has had any effect on their numbers. A way has now been found, however, of killing off the pests. Placing a few teaspoons of cat food next to ponds in the Northern Territory attracts meat eating ants. When the baby can toads appear from the pond they are eaten by the ants. Most native creatures are affected by the poisonous toxin put out by can toads. Fortunately, the ants are fully resistant. All the toad eggs hatch at the same time, so if you activate...