More-than-toad: Conflicts and Ruminations in Cane Toad Management.

This paper takes an event involving the introduced Cane Toad (Rhinella marina) in Australia, a community group, and a contested fence line as point of departure for discussions about different forms of engagement and the importance of being attentive to continuity and enduring forms. Cane Toads are considered a pest in Western Australia where several groups and agencies have mobilized to try to control the impact they have on native wildlife. I describe how Cane Toads and a fence constructed to deflect them are drawn into two different but related modes of engagement. One is a conflict modality where conviction engenders coherence and continuity, the other is what I call ruminations on Cane Toads as more-than-toad, which takes the form of an ongoing oscillation between expectations and surprise. ‘Toadbusters’ in Western Australia hold these two modes simultaneously in mind as practical everyday ontologies that do not map easily onto grand dualisms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]