Jakarta –
A giant cane toad (Rhinella marina) was found and caught in Queensland, Australia. Weighing 2.7 kilograms, the frog is nicknamed Toadzilla because of its size, it is possibly the largest animal ever recorded in its species. However giant toad it was immediately euthanized. Why?
Rangers found the giant amphibian in Conway National Park. Via Twitter, they said they were surprised to find a ‘monster’ cane frog that weighed roughly the same as a rooster.
“I honestly can’t believe it, I’ve never seen something this big,” said Kylee Gray, a ranger quoted by detikINET from CBS, Monday (23/1/2022). Gray described the find as a large, ugly, warty cane toad on the ground.
He and his colleagues guessed giant toad it’s a female because the female cane toads grow larger than the males. Previously, the record for the weight of a similar frog was 2.65 kilograms, found in 1991 in Australia as well.
After weighing, the rangers euthanized him according to there procedures, mainly because of the environmental damage they had caused. “Cane toads that big will eat anything they can fit into their mouths, including insects, reptiles and small mammals,” said Gray.
Cane toads are considered one of the world’s worst pests or invasive species. About 2,400 toads were released into Queensland in 1935 in hopes of helping control the cane beetle population. But because toads have no natural predators there and can lay between 8,000 and 30,000 eggs most of the year, they spread very quickly.
This amphibian is known to be poisonous. According to National Geographic, they secrete a toxin called bufotoxin which can cause cardiac arrest.
“Local animals that eat cane toads die almost instantly when they bite them,” wrote a study from the University of Western Australia in 2012. As such they are increasingly rampant.
Watch Video “Sighting of the Giant Sugar Cane Frog ‘Toadzilla’ Weighing 2.7 Kilograms“
[Gambas:Video 20detik]
(fyk/fay)
