Sunday, April 01, 2007

Please pass the frog legs.

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."
What do you suppose he meant by "rampant?"

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.

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.
"Frogwatch." Cool. I wonder if they have t-shirts. This could be a marketing bonanza for them.

But before you rush to join up, read this:

"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.
Eeeeewwww.

2 comments:

Steve Burri said...

Global Warming proof: Carbon dioxide kills fauna.

I hope they purchase carbon credits for that use of lethal CO2 gas.

Jay P said...

Wasn't it the Great Kermit the Frog who sang, "It ain't easy, being green." Uhhh, I mean tan.