In the wild rainforest of northern Australia, rangers stumbled upon a predator so large they felt they had no choice but to nickname it “Godzilla.” This creature is a giant frog!
This animal was spotted on January 12 by rangers conducting tracking searches in Conway National Park, Queensland, Australia.
A snake slithering along the track next to the Conway Circuit inadvertently forced the team to stop the vehicle and then encounter this giant frog.
“I reached down and grabbed the frog and couldn’t believe how big and heavy it was,” she said in a statement from the Queensland Department for the Environment and Science.
“We think it’s a female because of its size, and females grow larger than males,” Gray added. Although usually not that big.
world record
According to Guinness World Records, the current record for the world’s largest frog is 2.65 kg and measures 38 cm from snout to tail. The record was set in March 1991 by a frog found in Sweden.
The “Godzilla” found in Australia weighs 2.7 kilograms. “This could be a new world record,” Gray says of the discovery.
The team initially considered naming the large amphibian Connie after Conway National Park, she said in an interview with state broadcaster ABC on Friday, but eventually decided to name her after the fictional monster.
“We christened him Godzilla and quickly placed him in a container so we could remove him from the wild,” Gray said in the statement.
Much like his namesake, Godzilla was seen as a serious threat to those around him.
“A frog this size will eat anything it can fit in its mouth, including insects, reptiles, and small mammals,” Gray said.
While pigeons and rats are considered stubborn pests in many countries, toads wear the crown as one of Australia’s most invasive pests.
Against this background, the giant frog was euthanized because of the risk of environmental damage, according to a statement from the Ministry of Environment and Science.
The story of this frog
The species was introduced to the state of Queensland in 1935 to control the sugar cane beetle, a pest of sugar cane plantations.
The amphibian — usually brown and encrusted with large warts — can grow to 26 centimeters and weigh up to 2.5 kilograms, although the department says frogs of this size are rare.
Frogs like this one are considered a threat to biodiversity. They can colonize habitats quickly, as female frogs can produce up to 30,000 eggs in one season.
They can also be “deadly toxic to wildlife,” according to the press release.
The frog has been linked to the decline and extinction of several of its predators.