Blogs / Discoblog

Crocodiles will do just about anything to get home. A few years ago, three crocodiles were air-lifted hundreds of miles away from their habitat, and shocked everyone when they returned—a massive feat, considering crocs walk at a nail-biting speed of 10 miles per week.

Now that urban life is basically sitting on prime crocodile territory in Miami and the Florida Keys, the gator state is facing a problem: The current method of removing a crocodile from someone’s backyard canal and releasing it into the wild just isn’t enough, since they keep coming back. So the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commissions is experimenting with new methods of croc-removal…such as strapping magnets to each side of a crocodile’s head.

The logic is that the magnets will disorient the animal so much that it will stay lost in the wild. But will it really work?

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Remember the doomed, cane-toad-eating crocodiles? Well they’re still eating, and dying: A new report suggests that as much as 77 percent of the crocodile population along the Victoria River has now perished from toad poisoning.

In yet another example of the “solution to one problem becomes an even bigger problem” doctrine, cane toads were purposely introduced to the region as a pest-control measure for beetles in the sugar cane fields. But sure enough, the toads soon became pests themselves, to the point where volunteer groups are trying to stop the toads’ spread across the continent.

One community has been promoting “cane toad golf”—basically whacking the toads with golf clubs. A more humane way, experts suggest, is to put the toads in the fridge until they’re numb and then transfer them to the freezer to kill them.

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