'Freaky' five-legged cane toad found in Queensland backyard

The cane toad first made an appearance in Michael Messenger’s backyard a year ago.

“The first time I saw it I said what the f—? It’s really freaky, it really is,” he told 9News on Wednesday night.

Messenger was sitting on his Thagoona balcony, south-west of Brisbane about 15 minutes from the centre of Ipswich, when he saw the toad for the first time.

“I just walked over there and shined my flashlight on it,” he said.

“I filmed the video a year ago, the photos are from last week, I’ve seen it four or five times since then.

“It’s always had the five legs”

Dr Edward Narayan, a senior lecturer in animal science from the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences at the University of Queensland, told 9News.com.au this sort of sighting in Australia was “rare”.

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“It appears that is the right hind limb which has an overgrowth of two non or poorly functional limbs basically,” he said.

The broader cane toad population is infamous for its ability to rapidly expand into new territories but Narayan suggested this reptile might not be so nimble.

“It is likely to be having difficulty with leaps and bound because they rely on their powerful leg muscles for it,” he said.

Narayan believes it’s possibly a female toad and definitely an adult

He said the “fifth leg” could be down to a DNA issue at the early stages of development or an “error” with the hormonal “information for limb formation while she was in the egg stage”.

“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 possibly due to physical issues with the nature of egg deposition or damage caused by the surroundings,” he said.

The senior lecturer didn’t rule out the possibility of human-induced effects such as pesticide but called that a “long shot”.