QUEENSLAND – While on a routine patrol in North Queensland’s Conway National Park, ranger Kylee Gray stopped her vehicle to let a snake cross the track. What she saw next left her in disbelief.
Sitting near the path was a monstrous warty brown toad. “I reached down and grabbed the cane toad and couldn’t believe how big and heavy it was,” Gray told reporters. “It looked almost like a football with legs.”
Record-Breaking Discovery The toad, quickly nicknamed “Toadzilla,” tipped the scales at 2.7 kilograms (approx. 6 lbs). This weight surpasses the current Guinness World Record held by a pet toad in Sweden (2.65kg) set in 1991. Experts believe the specimen is female, as female cane toads grow larger than males.
A Threat to Nature Despite the fascination, the discovery highlights a serious ecological issue. Cane toads were introduced to Australia in 1935 and have since become a destructive invasive species with no natural predators. Due to the threat they pose to native wildlife, Toadzilla was humanely euthanized and will be donated to the Queensland Museum for research.