Australia is being terrorized by toads. But this is not just any frog, its size is gigantic.
It weighs only 2.7 kilograms. This possibility is the most jumbo animal ever recorded in its species.
The animal is named Cane Frog, scientific name Rhinella Marina. Because it is so big, the frog is nicknamed Toadzilla.
The giant toad was found by forest rangers in Conway National Park, Queensland, Australia. Through Twitter they claimed to be surprised.
Because they found a cane frog 'monster' which weighs about the same as a rooster.
"I honestly can't believe it, I've never seen something this big," said Kylee Gray, a ranger who quoted us from CBS, Monday (23/1/2022). Gray described the find as a large, ugly, warty cane toad on the ground.
He and his colleagues suspect the giant toad was 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.
Instantly Exterminated
After considering several things the rangers euthanized the frogs according to existing procedures, mainly because of the environmental damage they 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. Around 2,400 toads were released into Queensland in 1935.
At that time, releasing that many frogs was intended to help control the cane beetle population.
But because toads have no natural predators and can lay between 8,000 and 30,000 eggs a 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 the heart to stop working.
"Local animals that ate the cane toad died almost instantly when they bit them," according to research at the University of Western Australia in 2012.
Because of that poison and the absence of natural predators, cane toads are increasingly rampant.
7 Astounding Facts about the Giant Cane Frog
1. The biggest frog in the world
The cane toad is the largest frog in the world. Adult frogs can grow to an average of 10 to 15 cm, while the record for the longest is 24 cm. The recent discovery in Queensland, Australia, is considered to be the largest cane toad ever recorded, weighing around 2.7 kilograms. This frog is native to South and Central America, but has since spread to quite a number of countries.
2. Pests
In the 1930s, sugar cane farmers in Australia asked the government for help to get rid of beetles and insects that undermined their crops. Cane toads were brought in which were then bred and released into the wild. The numbers became uncontrollable because there were no natural predators and they reproduced so quickly.
It is estimated that there are currently around 2 billion cane toads in the country that are pests. Cane toads also spread rapidly in other areas such as Florida, Hawaii, the Philippines, the Caribbean and others.
3. Cane toads have poison in their skin
The cane toad skin gland secretion (called bufotoxin) is highly toxic and can sicken or even kill any animal that bites or eats it, including pets. Skin secretions can irritate the skin or 'burn' the eyes of humans who hold these frogs. So with that weapon, it's even more difficult to ward off this frog.
4. Breed very fast
One of the keys to cane toads spreading so quickly is being able to reproduce in such large numbers. They breed at almost any time of year and lay between 8,000 and 30,000 eggs at a time in fresh water.
Both the eggs and the tadpoles of the cane toad are poisonous. Not only that, they are highly adaptable and can be found in urban and agricultural areas, sand dunes, coastal prairies, rainforest edges and mangrove swamps.
5. Very greedy
Cane toads are very voracious and will eat almost anything they find. His random diet includes beetles, bees, ants, crickets, frogs, snakes, water snails, and even small dogs and cats. In residential areas, cane toads can often be seen climbing into dog food bowls and eating their contents.
6. There are people who lick cane frogs
When threatened, cane toads release a mixture of noxious chemicals, including 5-methoxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine. People who ingest these compounds, usually by licking frogs, experience intense hallucinations and fever throughout the body. Unfortunately, symptoms can include severe muscle weakness, violent vomiting, convulsions, and death from cardiac arrest.
7. Was poisoned by arrows
"The Choco Indians of western Colombia used to 'milk' the toads by placing them in bamboo tubes over an open fire," writes Christopher Lever in The Cane Toad: The History and Ecology of a Successful Colonist. The concentrated poison dripped into the bottle, and the noxious substance was smeared on the arrowheads and arrowheads.