Monster cane toad found in Australia

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Plagues, Pestilences and Diseases

Monster cane toad found in Australia*

27 Mar 2007 02:14:46 GMT
Source: Reuters

SYDNEY, March 27 (Reuters) - A huge cane toad the size of a small dog
has been captured in the Australian tropical city of Darwin, startling
environmentalists who are fighting to stop the poisonous reptiles from
spread across the country.

"It's a monster toad," said Paul Cowdy from FrogWatch which captured the
cane toad on Monday night.

"We've never seen a cane toad this big," he said on Tuesday. "It's a
male and normally females are bigger."

The cane toad, regarded as a major pest in Australia, was one of 39
caught by a group from FrogWatch near Lee Point in Darwin. It measures
20.5 cm (8 inches) in length and weighs 840 grams (1.8 pounds) -- twice
the normal weight.

Cane toads are one of Australia's worst environmental mistakes. The
spread of the toads, whose skin is poisonous, has led to dramatic
declines in populations of native snakes, goanna lizards and quolls,
which are cat-sized marsupials.

"We capture them, put them in plastic bags, freeze them and turn them
into liquid fertiliser," Cowdy said of the cane toads.

Cane toads were introduced from Hawaii in 1935 in a failed bid to
control native cane beetles. There are now more than 200 million.