‘Toadzilla’ found in Australian national park

Sydney, Australia, Jan 20 (EFE).- A 2.7-kilogram cane toad dubbed “Toadzilla,” which could be the largest on record, has been found in Australian national park, officials said Friday.

The introduced species, considered a pest and a threat to Australian fauna, was found last week in Conway National Park, Queensland, when ranger Kylee Gray and colleagues were driving in the area.

When a snake slithered across the track, forcing them to stop, Gray got out of the vehicle, looked down and saw the “monster toad.”

“I reached down and grabbed the cane toad and couldn’t believe how big and heavy it was,” Gray was quoted as saying in a social media post by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science on Friday.

“’Toadzilla’ may be the largest can toad on record,” the department said, adding that it had been removed from the wild.

Some cane toads, which usually weigh about half a kilo, can measure 26 centimeters long and weigh 2.5kg, the department said, adding that a specimen such as this “will eat anything it can fit into it’s mouth, and that includes insects, reptiles and small mammals… the introduced species can be poisonous to wildlife as well.”

The cane toad is native to Central and South America and was introduced to Australia in 1935 with the aim of combating beetles destructive to the region’s sugarcane crops.

However, without natural predators, they spread across northern Australia and have “had a serious impact on the ecosystems,” the NationaL Museum of Australia said. EFE

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