The true story about the frog with eyes in its mouth

FactSeeker found a post on Facebook titled "Frog with eyes in its mouth" that describes a frog that does not have eyes where a frog would normally have them, but instead has eyes in its mouth.
by Anonymous |
July 22, 2025

Some people in the comments section had commented that this must be an AI creation. Considering these comments and the suspicious nature of the photo, FactSeeker took action to check its facts.
“Scientists have discovered a rare frog with a unique genetic mutation that causes its eyes to grow inside its mouth,” the photo caption reads. The photo was discovered by a team of Canadian researchers, who believe the trait may be an evolutionary adaptation, the caption says.
When the photo in the post was checked using Reverse Image Search, FactSeeker found that the photo had been posted in multiple languages and on multiple websites, including social media. Further investigation into the content of those posts revealed the first posting of the photo. The article is below.
https://www.thetravel.com/photo-toad-with-eyes-in-mouth-found-in-canada/
This image was used as the ‘cover photo’ in the article and was marked with Shutterstock AI next to it. The file name of the image is [shutterstock_2618136755], and when browsing through the shutterstock.com website, the original design created using artificial intelligence was found. Its link is below.
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-generated/realistic-photo-frog-without-eyes-instead-2618136755
FactSeeker investigated the background to this photo. Accordingly, we checked whether there have been any reports of a frog with eyes in its mouth in the world. There, we got attention two photos that are believed to be the original photos of reports of a frog with eyes in its mouth, which have been posted in several social media posts, including the above thetravel.com article.
During our investigation into the photos, we found a fact check conducted by snopes.com, a US fact-checking organization (Verified signatory of the IFCN Code of Principles), several years ago. The link to it is below.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/frog-eyes-inside-mouth/
According to the information provided, Scott Gardner, a photographer working for the newspaper ‘The Hamilton Spectator’ in Ontario, Canada, captured a similar photograph of a toad with eyes inside its mouth around 1992. The original photograph taken by Gardner is said to have circulated with other photographs from time to time, the fact-checking report states.
The fact check states that the BBC wrote about Gardner’s photo in 2014, explaining that the strange-looking amphibian was discovered by two little girls in Ontario, Canada, in the early 1990s. Gardner’s photograph has appeared in several publications, most famously in evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkin’s 1996 book “Climbing Mount Improbable.”
The cause of this mutation is unclear, but BBC articles have suggested that it may be the result of a parasitic infection. The snopes.com fact checker has classified it as ‘Mostly True’, citing the above.
Older posts containing the photo believed to be the original photo of Scott Gardner are below.
https://www.descopera.ro/dnews/13721299-mutatie-genetica-bizara-aceasta-broasca-are-ochii-in-gura
https://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f149/toad-eyes-roof-mouth-130340/
https://blognews.am/rus/print/42750/
https://terrao.livejournal.com/4228508.html
https://www.tumblr.com/indicagirl253/55033270640/this-is-a-picture-of-a-goldschmidt-toad-that-has-a
https://virgool.io/@endregion.ir/%D9%81%DB%8C%D9%84%D9%85%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%8C-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%AF-%D8%A2%DB%8C%D9%86%D8%AF%D9%87-hbma8fzcpnw9
Some people refer to the animal in the photograph as a frog, but it is actually a toad. Frogs and toads are members of the same family, but the differences between the two are subtle and include differences in leg length, skin texture, habitat, and vocalizations, among others. Essentially, all toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads.