Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service rangers have found a huge cane toad in the Conway National Park, near Airlie Beach, the biggest one they have ever seen.
Ranger, Kylee Gray said a snake slithering across the track forced them to stop their vehicle, and when she stepped out and looked down, she gasped when she saw the cane toad.
“I reached down and grabbed the cane toad and couldn’t believe how big and heavy it was,” Ms Gray said.
“We dubbed it Toadzilla, and quickly put it into a container so we could remove it from the wild.”
She said a cane toad of that size would eat anything it could fit into its mouth, including insects, reptiles and small mammals.
“We believe it’s a female due to the size, and female cane toads do grow bigger than males. When we returned to base, she weighed in at 2.7 kilos, which could be a new record,” Ms Gray said.
“She was found at an elevation of 393 metres, which isn’t unusual, but she has created a lot of interest among our ranger staff due to her size.”
As cane toads can live up to 15 years in the wild, she guessed Toadzilla had been around for a long time.
We are pleased to have removed her from the National Park. She was humanely euthanised,” Ms Gray said.
She said the Queensland Museum was interested in taking the specimen.
Cane toads were introduced into Queensland in 1935 to control the cane beetle, but are now recognised by the Commonwealth Government as a threat as they compete with native species for sheltering sites and food resources.
