‘Really freaky’ mutant toad with extra leg is found in Australian backyard, video shows
An Australian man was looking in his backyard when he saw a creature hopping around. At first, he thought it was just another cane toad, an invasive species in Australia that has taken over the Outback.
When Michael Messenger took a closer look, he realized it was special.
“The first time I saw it I said what the (expletive)? It’s really freaky, it really is,” Messenger told 9News.
This cane toad had five legs, four in the normal spots and one extra leg sticking out of the toad right behind another back leg.
Messenger said he first saw the toad about a year ago when he first took the video. He has seen it four or five times since then and the deformity has looked the same, according to 9News.
“I don’t think [the extra leg] has any function, it just drags behind, but it looks weird,” Messenger said in an interview with ABC.
Edward Narayan, a professor of animal science at the University of Queensland, told 9News that a toad like this was “rare” and likely caused by a genetic mutation while the toad was an embryo.
“This could be attributed to random error by chance, as we know cane toads can lay over 30,000 eggs at each breeding session, or possible due to physical issues with the nature of the egg deposition or damage caused by the surroundings,” he told 9News.
Macquarie University professor Rick Shine told ABC that he had seen toads with five legs before, but it’s “very rare.”
Shine has spent time researching toads and said that a toad that was dragging an extra leg was more likely to be preyed upon, which contributes to the rarity of the sightings, according to ABC.
Shine said there likely was an injury to the embryo that caused the extra limb, ABC reported.
Another five-legged toad was found in the Northern Territory of Australia in 2014.
NT News reported that the toad was found with a short leg growing out of its chest.
A Central Queensland University researcher, Scott Wilson, told NT News at the time that only 1 percent of cane toads have major deformities. Wilson and his research team were studying a link between environmental pollution and mutations but had not found a conclusive tie.
Steven Miles, the deputy premier of Queensland, posted a picture of the toad with the caption, “Tell me you live in Queensland, without telling me you live in Queensland.”
“Toadzilla,” a nearly 6-pound cane toad, was also found in Queensland in January, the largest cane toad ever recorded.
This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 5:07 PM with the headline "‘Really freaky’ mutant toad with extra leg is found in Australian backyard, video shows."
