A cane toad in a Western Sydney bird bath has caused a shock and prompted a reassurance.
"I saw the hugest cane toad sitting in the bird bath, it was puffed up and it shocked me," reports Quakers Hill resident Gwendolyn Spare before admitting, "I think I shocked it too."
After reporting the toad to authorities, she was assured it was a beautiful specimen of cane toad plus, she relays, "they named it Gwendolyn!"
Gwendolyn, the cane toad that is, is "a kilogram of prime [cane] toad," attests Dr Rick Shine, Professor of Biology at the University of Sydney.
"It's incredibly easy to confuse them [with other toads]," he notes, emphasising, "you really shouldn't go out and kill [them] because it's very likely you're dealing with an endangered native frog."
The size of the toad in this particular story may have given away its non-native identity, though.
As for the non-native origins of the cane toad, Dr Shine says they came to this country after some agricultural scientists introduced the South American toad to get rid of beetles in Queensland's sugar cane.
While the immigrant toads have well and truly made the north east of the country their home, Gwendolyn the cane toad is not the start of a wave of toad arrivals to New South Wales, Dr Shine reassures us.
"This is one of hundreds that come to Sydney every year on the back of trucks.
"This'll be a one off and that's what most of them are, a hopeful toad heading off for a new life and ends up in a bird bath in Quaker's Hill."
If you come across any kind of animal at your place or somewhere it shouldn't be, don't "get the animal where it feels threatened and wants to defend itself, because animals are incredibly good at doing that," Dr Shine advises.
"Call the wildlife rescue people if its anything that could be a difficulty for you," or just give it the space to make its own way off your property.