#cane toads

[virtualdetectiveduck]

I’m so sad Cane Toads are venomous bc like

I want to pet them so bad

Like I want to own one so badly and put a funny hat on it

[labradoritedreams]

The Toad Council will see you now.

[another-omen]

I WENT TO AN ODDITIES CONVENTION AND BOUGHT SOME SHIT BOY‼️‼️

MY ASS GOT A NEW PONDERING ORB BITCHES

[kiunlo]

Image description: Screenshot of an email from Tumblr support that reads "Hello, we've removed the following content, along with any associated reblogs". A link to the deleted post is added into the email, and the end of the link reads "anyways-being-racist-towards-white-americans". The rest of the text reads "As per the policies you agreed to when creating a Tumblr account, we do not allow hate speech on Tumblr." End ID.

Anyways, I am pretty certain that THIS was the post in which I said "being racist towards white americans is literally not possible". Which tumblr decided to remove for "hate speech". lmao. lmao. lmao.

Alright. He's the goddamn context of the ENTIRE post, because this goes past just myself getting angry at white people for the usual bullshit.

A while ago, I got interested in reading about animals. This is actually what got me interested in bird watching, but I started out by reading a book that we already owned and had in our house: It was a book about "reptiles and amphibians of the world" which I though was pretty neat. Except it wasn't actually "reptiles and amphibians of the world" like the title suggested, it was more like "reptiles and amphibians of North America and sometimes also South America". There was not a single reptile or amphibian to be spoken of outside of North or South America, so the title was already misleading and somewhat annoying since I did believe at some point we were gonna be learning about reptiles and amphibians....of the rest of the world.

Anyways, moving past that, I kept reading about the cool animals and just accepted that this (most likely American author) had mislabelled their book for whatever reason and just assume this was indeed a book about mostly North American reptiles and amphibians, and as I continued with reading the book I was able to still enjoy it.

And then the Cane Toad entry showed up.

This is what made me absolutely certain that this author was American, because I could not believe for a second that anybody outside of America who supposedly knows shit about reptiles and amphibians could actually be so wrong about Cane Toads.

The Cane Toad entry was of course, in the book, because they are native to Central and South America, but if you know anything about Cane Toads, you might know that they were introduced into Australia many many years ago, and are considered to be pests here in Australia.

This author, who I am very certain was American, and who I'm very certain had never been to Australia before in his life, wrote about the details of the Cane Toad. I'm sure he got the regular details of the Cane Toad correct, but the moment he started talking about Cane Toads being a pest in Australia (which is true), he started to get things kinda wrong. I should also mention that I am Australian.

I will write down exactly what was written in this book that pissed me off.

Apart from beekeepers, conservationists and the public at large have become concerned about the presence of the cane toads [in Australia]. Some of the fears are unjustified. In 1959 one commentator in Florida wrote: "monstrous toads which threaten housewives in their backyards, seize dogs by the head, and hang on with a death-resulting grip, or attack and kill with their virulent poison the innocent neighborhood cats." There is no doubt that cane toads produce virulent poisons that can easily kill a dog or a cat. However, they do not go out of their way to do so, nor (as far as we know) do they seize dogs by the head! The biggest problem they pose is that they eat and compete with indigenous species of amphibians, many of which are unique to Australia. Having said that, the lifestyles of Australian toads vary so much that competition may be limited to a few breeding pools. The appetite and sheer size of the cane toads must take a toll on local populations, but again surveys seem to show that they do not appear to have had a serious affect. Predators that attempt to eat them, including several species of snakes, often die. Much of the reaction against [cane toads] may be prejudice: Humans do not much like large toads that eat the food they put out for their pets.

This is what pissed me off. I will go on a small tangent here to just air my grievances fully with this book that I didn't get to previously since today is the day of dumb bullshittery that I thought I was finished with, but we will move on after I'm done complaining about this author lmfao.

Yes, some of the information above is correct, however some of it is blatantly false, and the data provided downplays the existential threat that Cane Toads exhibit to our unique Australian environments and ecosystems.

Some of the above sentences also include comments from some fucking guy in FLORIDA in the 1950's who talked about the Cane Toads in Australia. Here's why this also pisses me off.

old ass fucking source (aka very much not relevant anymore)

it's a comment from some fucking guy in FLORIDA. No offence to any Floridians out there but a fucking Floridians opinion on how the Cane Toads affect the Australian ecosystem is not wanted, needed, or relevant to somebody who actually lives in Australia, and Australian's opinion is much more valuable in this instance

The author tries to use this (obviously stupid comment) as evidence that the "public at large" (in Australia) are over-exaggerating the threat that the Cane Toads actually exhibit, when this is, again, an old ass fucking comment from some guy in Florida, a comment which is not the majority of AUSTRALIANS opinions or thoughts about the Cane Toad.

Here is some more accurate information from the NSW Australian government about Cane Toads:

Cane toads have no natural enemies and their spread could have a devastating impact on our native animal species and ecosystems. Cane toads are a threat to biodiversity because they are poisonous, predatory, adaptive and competitive. Cane toads compete with native species for both food and habitats. They have a voracious appetite and can eat a wide variety of foods, depleting the food source for other animals. Native frogs are particularly vulnerable to the threat of cane toads both as a food source for the toad and as a competitor for other food sources.

Anyways. The point is, this book pissed me off. I wrote a post about the book here on tumblr complaining about the book, and complaining about the clearly-American author's lack of education and research about a species of toad that was invasive in a country he most likely had never been to. This is something that I would never expect anyone in any other country to do except for an American, which is something that has been observed time and again in all sorts of different scenarios and situations. I was an Australian complaining about yet another fucking seppo talking about shit in another country that he actually has no clue about.

And then, a day later or some shit, an American found my post, and said, and I quote "this post reeks of racism" because I dared to criticise and complain about an American author's lack of research on a species of animal that was invasive in Australia. This lead to me going to his profile, seeing he had "landlord" in his bio (LMAO), me making fun of him for being a landlord, telling him that as a landlord his opinion is worthless, and then subsequently blocking him.

I then went on to create another post, the post that was removed in the screenshot, about how being "racist" towards White Americans wasn't real or something you could actually do, and that the landlord that said that I was being "racist" was literally wrong and also stupid. The landlord may or may not have reported that post, but either way, that post, my friends, was removed for hate speech. Which boils my goddamn piss.

Seriously. What's next? Saying that being "straightphobic" against straight people isn't real either is gonna get my fucking post taken down too? Tumblr staff realise that White people have privilege, right? Do they get that? Do they realise racism against White people, especially in countries like America, Australia, England etc. is not fucking real?????? Like, the whole reason I MADE that post was because the landlord insinuated that me criticising an American author for BEING an ignorant American writing about shit that he didn't know about was "racist", which it CLEARLY FUCKING ISN'T.

Mind you, my post had basically NO NOTES. There are other way more fucking harmful posts about Indigenous Australians and other minority groups that have thousands of notes that are just. out there. having not been removed whatsoever even though people have reported them a bunch of times, and yet it's MY fucking post that gets removed? Lick my fucking ass.

[pochqmqri]

Cane toads in Townsville, QLD, Australia

[merelygifted]

Huge cane toad found in northern Australia believed to be largest on record : NPR

[myrtaceaae]

Did any other Australian kid have to watch the scare documentary about cane toads 17 times throughout schooling?

[dylsexai]

Who is “much maligning” this bird and why does the ABC feel so strongly that the criticism is unfair?

good news!

why is this so fucking comical

yeah you must fucken .... you stress out the toad and then give it a rinse, voilah

[emmalemmala]

Go you QLD legends!!!!!!

[starfleetshrimps]

have you guys seen the cain toad documentary/been to a cain toad documentary watch party or are you weird and cringe and joyless

[doublyamusing]

Australians found screaming crying throwing up

[bepearls]

How is medicine used?

At the sight of a deep open wound, a modern-day person would rush to the emergency room for antibacterial medication and stitches. On the other hand, the Amazonian people rush in search for Cordoncillo. Cordoncillo is a medicinal plant that contains multiple properties: it  disinfects wounds, numbs pain, and stops blood hemorrhages. They discovered and still use one natural medication that treats all effects of a wound. Another miraculous plant discovered by the Amazonians is Pusanganade Motelo. If a fellow tribe member is experiencing an anxiety attack, they are given Pusanganade to calm their anxiety. This miraculous plant gives a jovial side effect that can be used to treat depression and is a healthier alternative than clinically produced medications. Not only do indigenous people use plants to treat their illnesses, but they also use animals. The cane toad is a neotropical species that secretes toxins which contain strong hallucinogenic properties. If a member of a tribe is physically suffering from pain, the Amazonian people will cautiously hunt down a cane toad and give it to the ill person to lick raw. Although this might seem gross, licking the toad will relieve all pain so that the ill person does not suffer and even causes hallucinations. Cane toad is the natives’ substitute for our scientifically developed pain killers. 

[positivefishing]

HELP Are these CANE TOAD tadpoles? MUDDY Track / DRONE of Fitzroy River...

[mistfunk]

Mistigram: as part of the Mistigris World Tour, Mist head and "lit" writer Cthulu was all up in other groups' infofiles, sticking short fiction where it had no business being. This passage, likely an exercise from his #NewShoots high school creative writing club, undoubtedly was inspired by a screening of Mark Lewis' 1988 #CaneToadsAnUnnaturalHistory documentary. This was included in the BLDE9612 artpack collection.

[wolsalwastaken]

My headcanons for the species of the bishops (+ bonus headcannons):

Leshy is an American dagger moth caterpillar, his little black spiky things and fluffy green appearance all match up with it. Since he’s clearly an adult, but is also stuck as a caterpillar, my headcanon is that his godhood prevented him from fully aging, as he was a caterpillar when being granted his power. He also can read in braille, however he is dyslexic, so he’s not very good at it.

Heket is a Cane Toad. Since Cane Toads are prevalent in Australia and are known for having an incredibly large appetite (and incredibly large size), I’d bet actual money that that’s what she was based off. Also yes, she canonically is a toad she isn’t a frog guys. It’s also incredibly painful for her to speak, even after her being healed, so she chooses to communicate through sign language most of the time.

Narinder is an Egyptian Mau, the first ever species of domestic cat (they also are often black in color). I also dreamt that he’s ambidextrous so that’s now a headcanon I have, idk my subconscious projected it onto him. Maybe it’s bc I myself am ambidextrous, or maybe I’m just weird.

Kallamar is a vampire squid, since vampires are blamed for the spread of disease, plus vampire squids have lil ears + a big ass forehead, it just makes sense to me. Since Kallamar is either partially or entirely deaf, he can communicate through speech but can only receive information through sign language. Him and Heket have the easiest time communing.

Shamura is a regal jumping spider, as seen with their bright coloration and big eyes. They use post-it notes to remind themself of things, however 90% of the time the notes are entirely unhelpful 1-word clues. Sometimes Leshy will intentionally mess with them by leaving fake notes.

Anyways just wanted to share my headcanons for them bc I want to, idk. Hope you’ve enjoyed them- if anyone’s wondering why I got oddly specific with species it’s bc I’m a biology major and animal nerd.

(Pictured below are the animals I hc them as, in order of mention)