I imagine Aussies could make a bigger dent in their cane toad problem by giving some smart folks a budget to teach classes and produce educational videos specifically for crows.
Spread the knowledge on how to safely eat cane toads to every corvid on the continent, much faster than that information could spread naturally.
Some crows have a concept of death and mortality, and the ability to make causal associations. It is certainly possible to teach them a skill by literal demonstration, and may be possible to teach via symbolic representation.
Catch a bunch of cane toads. Prepare the edible parts from some as motivational snacks to attract interested crows. Use a crow puppet to naively eat a model cane toad, and make it "die". Then use another crow puppet to manipulate and eat a model toad avoiding the poison glands. Give a live cane toad to a crow known to have the skill, so it can demonstrate. Then release some live toads for novices to try it out.
Then attempt an experiment to show a video of that demonstration to an ignorant flock, and see if they can acquire the skill that way.
Spread the knowledge on how to safely eat cane toads to every corvid on the continent, much faster than that information could spread naturally.
Some crows have a concept of death and mortality, and the ability to make causal associations. It is certainly possible to teach them a skill by literal demonstration, and may be possible to teach via symbolic representation.
Catch a bunch of cane toads. Prepare the edible parts from some as motivational snacks to attract interested crows. Use a crow puppet to naively eat a model cane toad, and make it "die". Then use another crow puppet to manipulate and eat a model toad avoiding the poison glands. Give a live cane toad to a crow known to have the skill, so it can demonstrate. Then release some live toads for novices to try it out.
Then attempt an experiment to show a video of that demonstration to an ignorant flock, and see if they can acquire the skill that way.