“Toadzilla”, the giant frog that can break records

(CNN) – Rangers in northeastern Australia were shocked when they came across what may be the largest frog ever seen, which weighed around 3 kilograms (6 pounds).

Dubbed “Toadzilla”, the amphibian weighing 2.7kg (5.9lb) was found in Queensland’s Conway National Park last week while park officials were carrying out surveillance work, the Environment Department said. And state science in social networks. .

in Tweet from ThursdayThe department said the rangers were “shocked to find a monstrous cane toad”.

‘Toadzilla’ has been removed by rangers as cane toads are devastating indigenous Australian wildlife. Queensland Department of Environment and Science/Reuters

Ranger Kylie Gray said the team encountered the giant creature when she got out of her car to let a snake slide down the track.

“I reached out and grabbed the cane toad, and I could not believe its size and weight,” Gray said in a statement from the ministry on Friday.

“We named it Toadzilla,” Gray said, adding that they worked quickly to remove it from the wild because a cane toad of its size would eat “anything that fits in its mouth.”

Believed to be female, as she usually grows larger than her male counterparts, the frog was returned to the keeper’s base where it was weighed. Rangers say Toadzilla could set a new world record.

Toadzilla was placed in a bucket of water for its gigantic weight. Queensland Department of Environment and Science/Reuters

the The current Guinness World Record The larger toad was created in 1991 by Prinsen, a pet frog in Sweden, weighing 2.65 kg (5.13 lb).

The ministry added in a tweet that it had since been “euthanized due to the environmental damage it causes.”

The Department of Environment and Science told CNN on Friday that it had been sent to the Queensland Museum for further analysis.

Native to South and Central America, cane toads were first introduced to Australia in 1935 as a biological control against cane beetles. It has become an invasive and harmful species that has “had a devastating impact on our native wildlife,” the ministry added.