Kimberley gene ark to guard against cane toad - ABC Online

TONY EASTLEY: The Kimberley in WA is a crown jewel in Australia's natural heritage, but the cane toad is threatening much of what is dear to the area. After 70 years on the hop, cane toads are moving into the region.

With a potential crisis on their hands, scientists have suggested the controversial move of setting up a gene bank they've called the "Kimberley Ark".

Here's environment reporter Sarah Clarke

SARAH CLARKE: The Kimberley region is well known as a biodiversity hot spot, a pristine area with a rich array of wildlife that's seen nowhere else.

SEAN DOODY: It's also often called the last biological frontier in Australia. So last year we rediscovered the scaly tailed possum after it hadn't been seen in the east Kimberley for 100 years. And so this is important because this sort of pristine wilderness is now under threat from that little toxic eco-terrorist, the cane toad.

Sean Doody is from the University of Tennessee. Next week he'll join a team of scientists from Australia on a trip to the eastern part of the Kimberley.

They've spent the last four years surveying the region, putting together the baseline data and documenting what exists. Now they're going back to see what's at stake.

SEAN DOODY: So I guess there's an urgency about the Kimberley because we don't understand that biodiversity yet and we've got this cane toad that's encroaching on the east Kimberley right now.

SARAH CLARKE: With the toad moving at around 30 to 50 kilometres a year, the team is concerned about how fast they'll lose the rich variety of species in the region.

On the hit list are some of the top predators, including goannas, even freshwater crocodiles.

Simon Clulow from the University of Newcastle is part of the team.

SIMON CLULOW: Our research over the last four years has shown very healthy populations of nine species of goanna in fact, three of which we know are definitely going to be affected by toads. Also populations of two species of turtle that we're concerned about, a species of frog that's entirely endemic to the Kimberley region known as the magnificent tree frog - certainly magnificent by name and magnificent by nature. And we're concerned about it as well.

SARAH CLARKE: Not to mention the northern quoll which is expected to suffer heavy losses, including localised extinction.

And with top predators on the hit list, these scientists say there's a "cascading" effect on the whole ecosystem.

SIMON CLULOW: If one species becomes more abundant, it perhaps preys on other species and that species become less abundant and you get an imbalance in the ecosystem.

SARAH CLARKE: So with that in mind, Simon Clulow from the University of Newcastle says the next step must be taken and now.

SIMON CLULOW: In an ideal world it would be great to treat the cause but we just know that's not going to happen in time. So what we propose is that we actually begin to set up what we call the Kimberley Ark - a gene bank specifically for Kimberley species that we know are going to decline - and start banking down material that we're able to use in the future to bring some of this genetic diversity back this after they've been impacted.

TONY EASTLEY: Simon Clulow from the University of Newcastle ending that report from environment reporter Sarah Clarke.