http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21460307-30417,00.html
Massive cane toad made to measure a.. Ashleigh Wilson b.. March 28, 2007 THEY said it was as big as a dog - a small chihuahua could come close - but a giant cane toad caught in Darwin by volunteer frog catchers is certainly among the biggest to be found in northern Australia. The volunteers, who were taking part in a series of hunts designed to contain the spread of the noxious pests in the Top End, picked up the 20.5cm toad at Lee Point, in Darwin's north, on Monday night. According to experts, the "rampant male" weighed in at 869g and was one of 39 cane toads caught during the night. Stretched out, it was 40cm long. "I was a bit stunned," said Graeme Sawyer, co-ordinator of toad monitoring group FrogWatch North. "He's huge - I'd hate to meet his big sister." Mr Sawyer, a conservationist who has seen his fair share of toads over the years, said it was the size of a small dog. "The only bigger cane toad I've seen is in a specimen bottle in a museum in Brisbane," he said. "I reckon I've probably seen 50,000 to 60,000 cane toads in the last 12 months, and there is nothing even remotely close to this thing." Ross Alford, associate professor in James Cook University's School of Marine and Tropical Biology, said yesterday he once saw an even bigger one. Caught in Townsville about 10 years ago, that cane toad was 22cm long and weighed 1200g. Introduced to Queensland in 1935 in a misguided attempt to control cane beetles, cane toads quickly spread across Queensland before moving south into northern NSW and towards Western Australia via Kakadu National Park. Along the way, the cane toads have been blamed for eradicating the northern quoll from Kakadu, as well as forcing two species ofgeckos higher on the Northern Territory's threatened species list. But the presence of such large toads in Darwin, in addition to recent sightings near the centre of town, has not necessarily worried the small army of volunteers committed to reducing their march across the Top End. Mr Sawyer said regular "toad busts" had significantly reduced the number of toads around Darwin over the wet season, a period when they were expected to permanently move into town. He said high levels of vigilance by Top End locals had all but stopped the march of the cane toad into town. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
