Giant Texas bullfrog photo is real ... but don't be fooled by what you see

The South Texas Hunting Association shared a photo on Facebook this week of what looked like a mildly-monstrous bullfrog catch, but commenters aren’t so sure it’s real. PHOTO: South Texas Hunting Association on Facebook Click through to learn how to detect and debunk those pesky internet hoaxes.... less The South Texas Hunting Association shared a photo on Facebook this week of what looked like a mildly-monstrous bullfrog catch, but commenters aren’t so sure it’s real. PHOTO: South Texas Hunting Association ... more Photo: South Texas Hunting Association On Facebook Photo: South Texas Hunting Association On Facebook Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Giant Texas bullfrog photo is real ... but don't be fooled by what you see 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

The South Texas Hunting Association shared a photo on Facebook this week of what looked like a mildly-monstrous bullfrog catch, but commenters aren’t so sure it’s real.

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A man named Markcuz Rangel shared the photo with the website, stating that it was caught in a pond on a ranch near Batesville and weighed 13 pounds. It appears the creature had been shot and killed, judging by the rifle in the hand of Rangel.

Of course any photo on the internet should be viewed with suspicion. There are no videos of said bullfrog being caught or postmortem and the photos shown seem somewhat … off.

Steve Lightfoot, spokesman for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, confirmed to Chron.com that the photo IS real, but that doesn't necessarily mean monster frogs are taking over South Texas.

"It's not as bigly as it appears," Lightfoot said video." [It's an] optical illusion created by extending frog toward the camera -- similar to what you see with fishermen holding up fish to make them appear larger. Still a big bullfrog, though."

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Back in 2015 the folks at Snopes debunked a supposedly 42-pound bullfrog catch by studying the viral photo that had been going around.

Chron.com reached out to Rangel on Friday afternoon to get more detail on his frog catches. Apparently he's been quite adept at finding the biggest ones in South Texas.

For now we will just have to imagine the all the ways that our foodie friends would cook those frog legs, which look like turkey legs at the rodeo carnival.