Group captures dog-sized ‘monster’ toad

updated 8:41 a.m. ET March 27, 2007

DARWIN, Australia - An environmental group said Tuesday it had captured a “monster” toad the size of a small dog.

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.

‘Sensational fertilizer’
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.

MORE FROM WEIRD NEWS

Weird news Section Front

Too cold for nude protest, but bikers ride on Against nudity ban, Ore. gallery takes it all off Live frog 'ornaments' on Christmas trees Boy, 4, caught with beer, wearing dress Teacher on leave for choir's Hooters lunch Bust of Frank Zappa to grace Baltimore library Do you take this man (in monitoring bracelet)? Money robbed from Pa. bank is mailed back Flashing teen found guilty after being hit by car Cops: Woman lay dead in bed for 8 months Weird news Section Front   Add Weird news headlines to your news reader: