"As big as a baby": What a huge toad found in Australia looks like

Australian national park employees found a huge toad that weighed more than some newborn babies. The amphibian turned out to be so huge that it has been portrayed on the Web as a relative of the Ninja Turtles and Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars.

Rangers from Conway National Park in Queensland happened to come across an enormous poisonous cane toad. Employee Kylie Gray saw the amphibian while driving – the woman stopped to let the snake crawl by, but then spotted the large toad on the road.

"I reached out and grabbed the cane toad and couldn't believe how big and heavy it was," Gray said.

The park staff took the animal back to the base, where they weighed and measured it. It turned out that the toad could qualify for the title of the world's largest toad, as it weighed 6 lb (2.7 kg). Its predecessor, listed in the Guinness Book of Records, weighed 5.83 lb (2.65 kg).

"We think it's a female because of its size, and female cane toads do grow larger than males. When we returned to the base, it weighed 2.7 kilograms, which could be a new record," the park officials wrote.

Because of its large size, the rangers named the toad Toadzilla, similar to the nickname of the giant monster Godzilla. Photos and videos of the poisonous amphibian went viral on social media.

Many Internet users were amazed by the size of the toad and compared the animal to the Mutant Ninja Turtles and the huge Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars.

Some commenters, however, were outraged that the animal had been euthanized because of the threat to the environment. A cane toad of this size feeds on insects, reptiles, and small mammals, so in Australia and many other regions the poisonous amphibian is considered a pest that threatens biodiversity.

Source: medialeaks.com

You might be interested in:

Rescuers spent 20 hours pouring seawater on a stranded 70-ton whale while waiting for the tide

Devoted French bulldog closed his eyes forever 15 minutes after losing his owner