Maybe My Favorite Photo

Of all the photographs I've ever taken, this one very well might be my favorite:

Toad


For some reason, it just strikes me as being particulary gorgeous, albeit pretty limited in its color range. I hope you like it. As always, comments are welcome--pro or con.

Comments

  1. Grump Les TiltskinApril 28, 2007 at 11:58 PM

    That looks suspiciously like a cane toad, Bufo Marinus - though I'm no toad expert.

    His ilk was imported from the Americas to Australia's northeast in the early 1900s in a bid to combat the cane beetle that was destroying all the region's sugar cane.

    Only problem was, the cane beetle lived high in the cane, where the toad couldn't get to. Oh yeah, and the leathery amphibians decided they liked Australia's tropics and went feral overnight.

    The toad has now spread across the entire top-end of Australia, wiping out native fauna with its poison glands wherever its interminable hop takes it.

    It was actually one of the first beasties ever to be given a Latin name - by Linnaeus in 1758.

    In North Queensland, the pestilent toad is (somewhat-cruelly) used for golf practice.

    In southern Queensland, where they're only slightly less prolific, we used to cut their recently-frozen carcases up in biology class.

    I hear they're not nearly so much of a nuisance in the Americas, where the wildlife has adapted alongside them over the past few million years.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Louis J. CassorlaApril 29, 2007 at 4:50 PM

    I'm pretty sure the beastie in my photo is an American toad (Bufo americanus). The photo was taken in Maryland, USA. Apparently the seed species for the Cane toad was native to South and Central America.

    Nonetheless, Australia's history with introduced non-native species is a story of great ecological tragedies piled atop each other. Very, very sad!

    That's really cool about the early taxonomy from Linnaeus, though.

    And it's a real shame that nothing more humane than frog golf has been devised as a way to deal with the problem.

    That's just rung a bell: The first exposure I ever had to Mike Judge (creator of Beavis and Butt-Head (which I've never liked), King of the Hill (which I've always thought was brilliant), Office Space (which is hilarious) and Idiocracy (which is at least worth a viewing)) was a short film called "Frog Golf". Hadn't thought of that in years!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 2, 2007 at 9:47 PM

    This world is too small..."rung a bell"...see my comment on your pun blog. (I had NOT read these comments before.)

    ROTFLMAO!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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