DARWIN, Australia - An environmental group said Tuesday it had captured a
"monster" toad the size of a small dog.
In this photo supplied by Frogwatch, Bob Gonion holds a 40
centimeter (15 inch) long cane toad near Darwin, Australia, on Monday,
March 26, 2007. Weighing nearly 1 kilogram (2 pounds), the toad is amongst
the largest secimens ever captured in Australia. [AP]
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With a body the size of a football and weighing nearly 2 pounds, the toad is
among the largest specimens ever captured in Australia, according to Frogwatch
coordinator Graeme Sawyer.
"It's huge, to put it mildly," he said. "The biggest toads are usually
females but this one was a rampant male ... I would hate to meet his big
sister."
Frogwatch, which is dedicated to wiping out a toxic toad species that has
killed countless Australian animals, picked up the 15-inch-long cane toad during
a raid on a pond outside the northern city of Darwin late Monday.
Cane toads were imported from South America during the 1930s in a failed
attempt to control beetles on Australia's northern sugar cane plantations. The
poisonous toads have proven fatal to Australia's delicate ecosystems, killing
millions of native animals from snakes to the small crocodiles that eat them.
As part of its so-called "Toad Buster" project, Frogwatch conducts regular
raids on local water holes, blinding the toads with bright lights then scooping
them up by the dozen.
"We kill them with carbon dioxide gas, stockpile them in a big freezer and
then put them through a liquid fertilizer process" that renders the toads
nontoxic, Sawyer said.
"It turns out to be sensational fertilizer," he added.