(ANSA) – ROME, Jan. 20 – The one discovered by authorities in a rainforest in northern Australia is a record-breaking frog, so much so that it has earned the nickname ‘Toadzilla’ (a union between English ‘toad’ frogs and Godzilla). The specimen of cane toads is so huge that wildlife officials thought it was a fake. The average frog is six times larger, weighs 2.7 kg and could break a world record.
Frogs – first introduced to Australia in 1935 – are one of the country’s most damaging pests and are now estimated to number in the hundreds of millions.
When ranger Kylie Gray first spotted the massive amphibian while out on patrol in Queensland, she couldn’t believe her eyes. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“[Sembrava] Almost a soccer ball with legs. We named it Toadzilla. It was created by a toad domesticated in Sweden named Prinsen in 1991, and weighed 2.65 kilograms.
According to Gray, the giant specimen probably fed on a diet of insects, reptiles, and small mammals. Gray isn’t sure how old he is, claiming it was “a long time ago”. Frogs have no natural predators in Australia, and toxic species have devastated native animal populations. Toadzilla has since been killed, as is customary in Australia for vermin, and will be donated to the Queensland Museum. (Dealing).
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