The Australian prime minister ’s honor for skill has been awarded to University of Sydney life scientist Rick Shine , who has been helping to protect the country ’s wildlife from poisonouscane toadsusing sausage containing small , non - lethal amounts of meat from the virulent amphibian .

Cane toads , which are native to Central and South America , were introduce to Australia in 1935 in an attempt to control populations of cane beetles in Queensland ’s lucre plantation . Unfortunately , the experiment backfired spectacularly , as the anuran regurgitate at a rate of knots , spreading across much of the country .

Many predatory reptilian and mammals have since died as a effect of corrode these toads , which now pose a considerable threat to the survival of several native species .

In an effort to save Australia ’s wildlife , Shine devised an experimentation in which loose - place varanid lounge lizard were fedsmall cane toadsthat were n’t swelled enough to kill them but were potent enough to make them ill . This helped the lizards wise up to the dangers of eat toads , with the issue being that they avoided them in the wild and therefore outlived other lizards that had n’t been “ trained ” in this way .

Shine construe standardised resolution when feedingcane batrachian sausagesto quolls and goannas , which also memorize not to eat on large salientian after suffering the effects of a non - deadly Zen of poison . These sausage were thrown from helicopters in society to permit crazy animals to access them and learn a painful yet living - keep open lesson .

Shine ’s inquiry has also revealed how stock husbandry aid the facing pages of cane salientian , which take advantage of moistcowpatsto remain hydrated in dry region . anticipate their advance across the landscape painting to cover , he now plans to infix small toads to areas that have not yet been exposed to them , so that wildlife can discover to avoid larger toads before they go far .

speak toThe Guardian , Shine explained that “ we ’ve show that if you put little toads in instead , the predators learn instead of being killed . So they survive the cane frog onslaught . ”

( H / T : The Guardian )