Skip navigation

Current DateTime: 01:24:09 14 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 24355697
Group captures dog-sized ‘monster’ toad
By: The Associated Press | 27 Mar 2007 | 08:41 AM ET
Text Size
2-pound, 15-inch poisonous cane toad found in Australian city of Darwin

DARWIN, Australia - An environmental group said Tuesday it had captured a “monster” toad the size of a small dog.

With a body the size of a football and weighing nearly 2 pounds, the toad is among the largest specimens ever captured in Australia, according to Frogwatch coordinator Graeme Sawyer.

“It’s huge, to put it mildly,” he said. “The biggest toads are usually females but this one was a rampant male ... I would hate to meet his big sister.”

Frogwatch, which is dedicated to wiping out a toxic toad species that has killed countless Australian animals, picked up the 15-inch-long cane toad during a raid on a pond outside the northern city of Darwin late Monday.

Cane toads were imported from South America during the 1930s in a failed attempt to control beetles on Australia’s northern sugar cane plantations. The poisonous toads have proven fatal to Australia’s delicate ecosystems, killing millions of native animals from snakes to the small crocodiles that eat them.

‘Sensational fertilizer’
As part of its so-called “Toad Buster” project, Frogwatch conducts regular raids on local water holes, blinding the toads with bright lights then scooping them up by the dozen.

“We kill them with carbon dioxide gas, stockpile them in a big freezer and then put them through a liquid fertilizer process” that renders the toads nontoxic, Sawyer said.

“It turns out to be sensational fertilizer,” he added.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Tools:
Print EmailAdd This share icon
  • digg share

CNBC HIGHLIGHTS

  • Warren Buffett and Bill Gates spoke to Columbia students, and Buffett made the students a startling offer.
  • Brian L. Roberts
  • For the chief of cable company Comcast, growth has been about making deals – generally very large deals.
  • Some companies may start using insurance to shift carbon risk from their balance sheets to maybe... yours?
  • The president and founder of Genesis Today wants to improve America’s health, and thinks Wal-Mart can help.
  • Switzerland's privacy watchdog is taking legal action to force Google to make changes to its Street View service.
  • A wealthy, distracted Texas driver crashed his million-dollar Bugatti Veyron sports car into a salt marsh, say police.
ADD COMMENTS
Remaining characters


Current DateTime: 01:02:29 14 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29778428

Current DateTime: 01:05:03 14 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29779196

Current DateTime: 01:05:03 14 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29779199

Current DateTime: 01:05:03 14 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29779198
  Data is a real-time snapshot  *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis

© 2009 CNBC, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
A Division of NBC Universal
Thomson ReutersThomson Reuters