It was a toad-ally unexpected find.
Australian park rangers were stunned when they stumbled upon what could be the world’s largest known toad deep in a rainforest, tipping the scales at a whopping 6 pounds.
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 during a patrol in Conway National Park in Queensland state on Jan. 12.
Gray said in a statement released by Queensland’s Department of Environment and Science that a snake slithering across the track forced the rangers to stop their vehicle, and when she stepped out and looked down, she “gasped” when she saw the monster cane toad.
“I reached down and grabbed the cane toad and couldn’t believe how big and heavy it was,” Gray said.
Gray and her colleagues quickly captured the oversized amphibian to remove it from the wild.
“A cane toad that size will eat anything it can fit into its mouth, and that includes insects, reptiles and small mammals,” the ranger said.
The hulking animal — likely an older female, based on its size — was then hauled back to the rangers’ office for a potentially record-breaking weigh-in.
Guinness World Records lists the largest toad at 5.8 lbs, a 1991 record set by a Swedish pet.
“We considered naming her Connie after Conway National Park but Toadzilla was the one that just kept getting thrown out there, so that kind of stuck,” Gray told state broadcaster ABC Friday.
But Toadzilla’s reign was short-lived.
Senior park ranger Barry Nolan told Reuters Toadzilla was euthanized due to its “ecological impact” — the usual fate for cane toads across Australia.
Cane toads, which have poison glands, were introduced to Australia in 1935 to control cane beetles and other pests but their population exploded, and with no natural predators, they became a threat to Australian species, Nolan said.
“A female cane toad, like potentially Toadzilla, would lay up to 35,000 eggs. So their capacity to reproduce is quite staggering. And all parts of the cane toad’s breeding cycle are poisonous to Australian native species, so prevention is a big part of how we need to manage them,” he said.
Toadzilla’s colossal carcass was donated to the Queensland Museum for research.
With Post wires
