This was an unexpected toad ally find.
Australian park rangers were stunned to bump into what can have been the world’s largest known toad deep in the rainforest, tipping the scales to as much as 6 kilos.
Nicknamed “Toadzilla” for its monstrous size, the cane toad – an invasive species that poses a threat to Australia’s ecosystem – was spotted by “shocked” park ranger Kylee Gray while on patrol in Queensland’s Conway National Park on January 12.
Gray in an announcement published by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science that a snake crawling along the track forced guards to stop the vehicle, and when she got here out and looked down, she “gasped” when she saw the monstrous toad.
“I reached down and grabbed a cane toad and couldn’t imagine how big and heavy it was,” said Gray.
Gray and her colleagues quickly captured the overgrown amphibian to remove it from the wild.
“A cane toad this size will eat anything that may fit in its mouth, including insects, reptiles and small mammals,” the ranger said.
The massive animal – possibly an elderly female given its size – was then dragged back to the rangers’ office for a potentially record-breaking weigh-in.
Guinness World Records lists the biggest toad at 5.8 kilos, a 1991 record set by a Swedish pet.
“We considered naming her Connie after Conway National Park, but Toadzilla was the one which just got dumped there, so she form of stuck,” Gray told state broadcaster ABC Friday.
But Toadzilla’s reign was short-lived.
Senior park ranger Barry Nolan told Reuters that Toadzilla had been euthanized because of “ecological impact” – a typical fate for cane toads across Australia.
Cane toads, which have poisonous glands, were introduced to Australia in 1935 to manage cane beetles and other pests, but their populations exploded and without natural predators they became a threat to Australian species, Nolan said.
“The feminine cane toad, like potentially Toadzilla, would lay as much as 35,000 eggs. Their ability to breed is subsequently astounding. And all parts of the cane toad breeding cycle are poisonous to Australia’s native species, so prevention is a giant a part of how we want to administer them,” he said.
Toadzilla’s colossal corpse was donated to the Queensland Museum for study.
With postal wires
