Nature doesn't care where an animal is from
Wed, 21 Jan
|Brunswick
No one is prepared to look at a cane toad and admit: ‘this is what peak performance looks like’.


Time & Location
21 Jan 2026, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Brunswick, 7-11 Dawson St, Brunswick VIC 3056, Australia
About the event
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This round's topic: Nature doesn’t care where an animal is from
No one is prepared to look at a cane toad and admit: ‘this is what peak performance looks like’.
Biologists often talk about the negative impacts of introduced plants and animals, but is there a bias in this approach? If all life displaces life, if everything with a metabolism consumes energy, is there subjectivity creeping in when we decide when this is good or bad?
When we call something a pest, is this just classic Australian Tall Poppy syndrome tearing down the introduced animals and plants that made a go of it in their new environment? God forbid a feral camel have hobbies, like eroding a water way.
Or in the absence of evolution’s moral compass, is it important for scientists around the world to step in and make sure every (native) creature…
