A cane toad hopped out of an Australian tourist's tramping
boot.
An Australian tourist accidentally smuggled a poisonous
cane toad into Queenstown inside her hiking boot last week.
The critter was discovered after hopping out of the Cairns
woman's bag when she stopped by Ultimate Hikes shop ahead of
the walk on the Milford Track, the Southland Times reported.
General manager Noel Saxon said staff caught the toad
and contacted the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF)
who told them to kill it -- which was done by putting it in a
freezer.
A MAF spokeswoman told the newspaper the woman had arrived
from Sydney and declared her boots, which were then cleaned
at the airport, but socks stuffed in the tops may have
concealed the toad.
"We've tipped the boots, looked at them, cleaned them and
returned them to the passenger."
While the toad had managed to infiltrate the country, had it
escaped into the wild it would likely have perished in the
South Island climate, the spokeswoman said.
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