Australia: Catch a giant

With a body size of about a soccer ball and weighing nearly 2 pounds, this toad is one of the largest specimens ever captured in Australia, said Fogwatch program coordinator Graeme Sawyer.

'It's very big, really big,' he said. 'The biggest toads are usually females but this one is an aggressive male . I won't like it at all if I encounter his sister.'

Sugarcane was imported from South America during the 30s with an effort to control beetles in sugarcane plantations in northern Australia but this effort was unsuccessful. These poisonous toads have plagued Australia's fragile ecosystem, killing millions of animals in the area from snakes to crocodiles eating them.

As part of a project called 'Exterminate Toad ', the Frogwatch program made raids in water holes in the area, blinded the toads with light and then scooped them up.

'We kill them with carbon dioxide, store them in a big chiller and then treat them into liquid fertilizer', this process will make them no longer toxic, Mr. Sawyer said.

Mr. Sawyer added: 'It turns out they are extremely good fertilizer.'

Mr. Graeme Sawyer is holding a 40cm (15 inch) cane toad in his hand.
near Darwin city, on Monday, March 26. (Photo: Graeme Sawyer)

Weighing nearly 1 kilogram (2 pounds), this toad is one of the large specimens
Most ever caught in Australia ( Photo: Terry Trewin)

Thanh Van