It was in the 1930s, Australia took up to wipe out toxic amphibian – the toads – from the land. For the job, it employed an environmental group, which since then has killed countless animals.
But, the volunteer-run organization – Frogwatch – hit the news headlines by capturing a “monster” cane toad of the size of a ‘small dog’! The 15-inch-long cane toad was picked up during a raid on a pond outside the northern city of Darwin late Monday.
The ‘monster toad’ as the voluntertrs would like to address it is having a body of the size of a football. It weighs nearly 2 pounds! The bizarrely sized toad is among the largest specimens ever captured in Australia.
Frogwatch coordinator Graeme Sawyer said.
Sawyer said,
It’s huge, to put it mildly. The biggest toads are usually females, but this one was a rampant male … I would hate to meet his big sister.
These cane toads — named Bufo marinus — were imported from South America in the 1930s to control beetles on sugar cane plantations in northern Australia. But, the attempt to control the pests failed and to add to the disaster the poisonous toads, in turn, has proven fatal to the delicate ecosystems of Australia.
Till date, it killed millions of native animals from snakes to the small crocodiles that eat them!