Park rangers in Australia believe they may have found a record-breaking cane toad in a rainforest.
Nicknamed “Toadzilla” by the rangers, the 5.9-pound amphibian was discovered in Conway National Park in Queensland last week, CBS News and The Washington Post reported.
In a news release, the Queensland Department of Environment and Science said ranger Kylee Gray said a snake moving across a track on Jan. 12 forced her team to stop her vehicle.
“There was a red-belly black snake on the track in front of us,” Gray told the Australian Broadcasting Company. “So we stopped to let the snake pass and got out of the vehicle and right next to us was this huge cane toad.”
The biggest toad in history may have just been discovered at a national park in Australia. It was dubbed Toadzilla and it's so massive that when a park ranger discovered it, all she could do was gasp at its size. https://t.co/9uvEN3HN9J pic.twitter.com/tf3lPvqO72
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 20, 2023
Gray said she could not believe the weight and size of the toad.
“I reached down and grabbed the cane toad and couldn’t believe how big and heavy it was,” Gray said in a statement. “We dubbed it Toadzilla, and quickly put it into a container so we could remove it from the wild.”
Rangers believe the toad was a female due to its size. Now, Australian officials are trying to determine whether Toadzilla could be a world-record holder, the Post reported.
According to Guinness World Records, the heaviest toad on record was Prinsen, a pet toad in Sweden. The amphibian weighed 5.13 pounds and measured 21 inches in length when fully extended, according to the website.
Toadzilla’s weight tops that number if her weight numbers are verified.
“We didn’t get it on certified scales,” Gray told the Australian Broadcasting Company. “So we’re sort of kicking ourselves.”
Gray believes Toadzilla bulked up from a diet of insects, reptiles and small mammals, the BBC reported.
Rangers conducting track work in Conway National Park, near Airlie Beach, were shocked to find a monster cane toad beside the Conway Circuit last week. The animal weighed 2.7kg. She has been euthanised due to the environmental damage they cause.https://t.co/2A9aKpalow pic.twitter.com/cSiYwBgr62
— Queensland Environment (@QldEnvironment) January 19, 2023
“A cane toad (Toadzilla’s) size will eat anything it can fit into its mouth, and that includes insects, reptiles and small mammals,” Gray said in the news release.
Toads, which were first introduced to Australia in 1935, are considered one of nation’s most damaging pests, the BBC reported. Because there are no natural predators, the toads are estimated to number in the hundreds of millions, according to the news outlet.
Like most captured toads, Toadzilla was euthanized, the news release stated.
But Gray said it was a memorable capture.
“(It looked) almost like a football with legs,” Gray told the Australian Broadcasting Company.
©2022 Cox Media Group
