Kylee Grey, a Queensland Department of Science and Environment ranger, hugs a giant cane toad on January 12 near Airlie Beach, Australia. The toad weighs 5.95 pounds.
Queensland Department of Environment and Science via AP
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Queensland Department of Environment and Science via AP
Kylee Grey, a Queensland Department of Science and Environment ranger, hugs a giant cane toad on January 12 near Airlie Beach, Australia. The toad weighs 5.95 pounds.
Queensland Department of Environment and Science via AP
Park rangers in northern Australia have found a cane toad so huge it’s jaw-dropping.
The toad, which rangers nicknamed “Toadzilla,” weighed in at what is believed to be a record 5.95 pounds – compared to an average weight of 1 pound.
Park ranger Kylee Gray discovered the monster toad while conducting tracking work in Conway National Park and “couldn’t believe how big and heavy it was”. said in a press release.
Rangers believe it is a female toad and although they do not know how old it is, “this one has been around for a long time,” Gray said. Cane toads can live up to 15 years in the wild.
Rangers quickly put the toad in a crate to bring it out into the wild and destroy it. The cane toad was introduced to Queensland in 1935 to control sugarcane beetle populations, but has become a pest of itself, invading habitats and poisoning other wildlife.
“A cane toad of that size will eat anything it can fit in its mouth, including insects, reptiles and small mammals,” says Gray.
The cane toad is native to South and Central America and has no natural predators in Australia. Over there maybe more than 200 million cane toads on the continent – a staggering increase from 100 that was introduced less than a century ago. Because their bodies are toxic to other species, they have caused the local extinction of some predators.
The body of the toad will be donated to the Queensland Museum, which is interested as it is possibly the largest toad on record. The largest known toad was Prinsen, a World record-holding a 5-pound and 13-ounce cane toad in 1991.
