Video courtesy: Queensland Government via Storyful
QUEENSLAND, Australia (WCIA) — Government officials in Queensland, Australia have shared video of what may be the biggest toad in history.
The Queensland Government said rangers were conducting track work in Conway National Park, near Airlie Beach when they found the giant amphibian. When the ranger got out of the vehicle and looked down, the department said, “she gasped” at the sight of the massive cane toad.
“We dubbed it Toadzilla, and quickly put it into a container so we could remove it from the wild,” the ranger said.
They added that “a cane toad that size will eat anything it can fit into its mouth, and that includes insects, reptiles and small mammals.”
Weighing in at 2.7 kilograms, or just under 6 pounds, they think the toad could be a new record. The rangers said they believe the toad is a female, as they tend to grow bigger than males.
Cane toads can live up to 15 years in the wild, and based on her size, she has probably been around for quite a while.
Introduced into Queensland in 1935 to control the cane beetle, the Queensland Government explained that cane toads can be fatally poisonous and have caused the extinction of some of its predators.
Cane toads also compete with native species for food and resources, and are recognized by the Commonwealth Government as a key threatening process to the nation under the national Environment Biodiversity and Conservation Act 1999.
The Queensland Government said Toadzilla was removed from the wild and humanely euthanized, and that Queensland Museum is “interested in taking her, as she might be the largest on record.”
