Dr. Kyle G. Ashton

Archbold Biological Station Vertebrate Biologist Kyle Ashton is familiar with the toad although none has been officially recorded on the station.This does not mean that Ross's killer toad is an unusual find in Highlands County.As they do elsewhere in the state, these killers spread slowly and tend to group in certain areas.Unfortunately for Rusty, he lived among them.

Back yards are only one of the cane toad's favorites.It also likes canals and ponds.They eat just about anything - insects, small birds, mammals, snakes - and seem to be especially fond of table scraps, cat food, and dog food.

Ironically, some birds immune to the poison prey on the toads and eat even the glands where the toad keeps its bufotoxin.

Kyle Ashton, a biology professor at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, wrote, "Given the horrific nature of the crime, polluting our environment with chemicals that decimate natural populations, it is absolutely necessary that any settlement funds go to ensuring that affected populations are completely restored prior to switching focus to other areas."

Dr. Kyle Ashton

Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
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Kyle G. Ashton, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder (candidate for Post-doctoral position)

Dr. Kyle Ashton

Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

With a population estimated at 110, "the numbers look good," said biologist Kyle Ashton.
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With data recorded during those years, Ashton and colleague Russell Burke are conducting what Ashton calls the longest study of a relocated population of gopher tortoises ever undertaken.
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"We have data from 1985, and we plan to do a complete census every five years," said Ashton, 29, who has worked at the Archbold Biological Station in Lake Placid and now teaches at Kutztown University in Kutztown, Pa.
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To help answer those and other questions, Ashton and Burke have tagged some 100 tortoises at Okeeheelee with implanted identifying chips that can be read by a scanner.
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"It is so important to know what's going on with gopher tortoises because their burrows can be used by up to 400 other species," Ashton said."They also stir up soil to provide sites for colonization by plants."

For thousands of years gopher tortoises were food.Widespread predation cut into the Florida population as recently as the Depression, according to scientists.

Now, with protections in place, Ashton, Campbell and others suggest the animals can serve humans in other ways.

They are beautiful, but not in ways most people think of beauty, Ashton said."They are slow, lumbering beasts, they are mellow and they just keep moving," he said.