Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!turpin
From: turpin@cs.utexas.edu (Russell Turpin)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Ecosystemic Contamination
Summary: There was an old lady who ate a fly,
	 I don't know why -- she ate the fly.
Message-ID: <7016@cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 11 Oct 89 14:50:53 GMT
References: <8909272147.AA01656@aristotle.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> <2035@frog.UUCP> <5446@hacgate.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 34

In article <5446@hacgate.UUCP>, goddard@aic.hrl.hac.com writes:
> cane toad				??			australia
> 
> This was introduced to control some other creature (cane snake?),
> which might also have been non-native.  Anyway, it is eating
> everything in sight and is considered an ecological disaster (wiping
> out native species).  There is a movie CANE TOADS which documents the
> story, I saw a clip and it looked great.  I think they are now looking
> for some non-native predator to introduce to eat the cane toads - who
> knows where this could end.

Reminds one of the children's song, no?  Each verse gets a little
longer as the old lady increasingly contaminates her internal
ecosystem.  (The 1st verse is the summary.) The last verse, as
well as I remember, it goes like this:

     I know an old lady who ate a horse,
     she died -- of course,
     
     she ate the horse to chase the dog,
     she ate the dog to catch the cat,
     she ate the cat to eat the mouse,
     she ate the mouse to scare the spider,
     (which wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her),
     she ate the spider to trap the fly,
     
     I don't know why,
     she ate the fly.

There is probably some good psychological or social reason why
they don't teach this song to children any more, but I'm always
reminded of it when I think of cane toads or rabbits in Australia.

Russell