1. zooillogix
  2. Monster Toad Captured!

Monster Toad Captured!

By zooillogix on March 27, 2007.


"This bounty hunter is my kind of scum: fearless and inventive." Cane toad, Bufo marinus

The environmental group, Frogwatch, caught one of the largest specimens of toad ever discovered in Darwin, Australia on Tuesday. The apprehended toad is the size of a football and as heavy as a small sack of potatoes.

Cane toads are a highly poisonous, non-native species in Australia and have been wreaking havoc on the local ecosystem for decades. Frogwatch's "Toad Buster" project launches "raids" on small ponds, blinds the toads with bright lights and nets them by the dozens. From there they are killed with carbon dioxide and used as fertilizer. Usually the biggest cane toads are females. "I would hate to meet his big sister," said Graeme Sawyer, Frogwatch coordinator.

Tags
amphibian
Australia
cane toad
monster
toad

More like this

Our sex lives in words and pictures (or, On the reproductive biology of the Bufonidae)
After a brief hiatus we return to the remarkable world of toads, and this time round we look at reproductive biology. As a western European person, the toad species I'm most familiar with (the Common toad Bufo bufo and Natterjack Epidalea calamita [see later articles for details on the name…
HR 669: The Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act
tags: House Resolution 669, HR 669, The Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act, legislation, pets, politics A proposed new law, House Resolution #669 (HR 669), The Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act, is working its way through the United States Congress. This resolution was introduced…
Biocontrol of Biocontrol?
One of the most controversial ideas in conservation is that of Biocontrol. The goal is to control invasive species or damaging pests by introducing predators/diseases/etc which kill them. Some attempts at biocontrol have been hugely successful. But others have been disastrous, like the introduction…
The resurrection of Anaxyrus
After a little delay, it's time to embark once more into the World of Toads!!! Having previously looked at toads in general, and at the toads of Europe, we here continue the series by looking at yet more familiar, northern toads: this time at those of North America. As with some of the other '…