Everything is big in Australia, poisonous cane toads included. Especially poisonous cane toads.
A giant example of the introduced pest was found last week by wildlife officers in the far north of the state of Queensland. The discoverers initially thought it was a fake.
The “monster” specimen is six times bigger than the average toad, weighs 2.7kg (5.9 pounds), and could break a world record.
Dubbed “Toadzilla”, the animal was quickly placed in a container and removed from the wild.
Ranger Kylee Gray recounted how she found the giant and looked down only to gasp when she spotted the enormous specimen.
“I reached down and grabbed the cane toad and couldn’t believe how big and heavy it was,” she said in a statement from the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
“We believe it’s a female due to the size, and female cane toads do grow bigger than males,” Gray added.
According to the Guinness World Records, the current record held for the world’s largest toad is 5.8 pounds, measuring at 1.3 feet from snout to vent. The record was set in March 1991 by a pet cane toad owned by a Swedish man.
“When we returned to base, she weighed in at 2.7 kilograms, which could be a new record,” Gray said of the newly discovered Toadzilla.
The team had initially considered calling the large amphibian Connie after Conway National Park, she said in an interview with the state broadcaster ABC on Friday, but ultimately settled on naming it after the fictional monster.
“We dubbed it Toadzilla, and quickly put it into a container so we could remove it from the wild,” Gray added in the statement.
File/A cane toad found at Bicentennial Park, Homebush, Sydney. While park rangers and scientists found no sign of any other toads, or their eggs, when they scoured the reserve, they urged people to take every step to ensure southern NSW remains toad-free. June 19, 1991. (Tim Clayton/Fairfax Media via Getty).
Cane toads – which were first introduced to Australia in 1935 – are one of the country’s most damaging pests and are now estimated to number in the hundreds of millions.
The animals have no natural predators Down Under and the poisonous species have wrought havoc on native animal populations.
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