How Surinam Toads Give Birth

  • By Anna Rothschild
  • Posted 07.09.15
  • NOVA

Surinam toad babies burst from the skin of their mother's back. Find out more in this episode of Gross Science.

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Running Time: 01:41

Transcript

How Surinam Toads Give Birth

Posted: July 9, 2015

Reproduction in the Surinam toad is your classic love story. Two toads meet. They fall in love. And next thing you know dozens of little toadlets come bursting out from under their mother’s skin.

I’m Anna Rothschild, and this is Gross Science.

The common Surinam toad, also called Pipa pipa, is an aquatic amphibian that lives in South America. Its body is flattened so it looks sort of like a rock or an old floating leaf.

But, while they might not be the most attractive creatures, their mating act is like something you’d see at the ballet. The male grabs the female around the waist in a mating embrace called “amplexus.” Then, the pair begins a “nuptial dance”—doing loop-the-loops in the water for over 12 hours.

The details of this process aren’t quite so romantic. At the top of each loop, the female releases a few eggs, which the male fertilizes and positions on her back. By the end of the nuptial dance, she’ll have dozen of eggs glued to her. And within a few days, the eggs get completely engulfed by their mother’s skin. The babies undergo a complete metamorphosis in their respective holes, and three to four months later the fully formed toadlets emerge from their mother’s back.

Now, this may sound bizarre, but it’s actually a parental care strategy—one that the mothers use to keep their babies safe until they’re ready to go off and begin their own weird little lives.

Ew.

Credits

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Host, Writer, Animator, Editor
Anna Rothschild
DP, Sound
Elizabeth Gillis
Many thanks to Dr. Vanessa K. Verdade.
Love Is A Bird
Music Provided by APM

IMAGES

Pipa pipa 1
Wikimedia/Stan Shebs
Surinam toad (DFdB)
Wikimedia Commons/Dein Freund der Baum

SFX

Cockroaches
Freesound/StateAardvark
(used with permission from author)
Squeak Pack/squeak_10
Freesound/Corsica_S
Amorous Toad
The fantastic Dan Hart
Produced by WGBH for PBS Digital Studios

IMAGE

(main image: Surinam toad)
©WGBH Educational Foundation 2015

Sources

Want more info?

Awesome footage of Surinam toad from the BBC’s Weird Nature:
http://bbc.in/1H5IsVg

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