On earth there are often creatures with whom nature, it would seem, played a cruel joke. Their appearance is often impressive, but more often it causes unpleasant associations and misunderstandings. One such unusual species is the pipa frog, also called the Suriname frog. At first glance, the Surinamese pipa resembles a lizard that has been caught under a steamroller.

The frog has a large, flat body, smoothly turning into a triangular head, four limbs: front, relatively short, with thin fingers, rear, much thicker with swimming membranes. The toes on the pipa's forelimbs are equipped with growths in the form of stars, for which it is sometimes called the star-fingered toad. The hind limbs are not very different from those of ordinary toads and are used for movement in water. There is a set of tentacles in the jaw area, but no tongue. The appearance can be assessed in the photo.

Toads can reach up to 20 centimeters in length, but more often it does not exceed 12 centimeters.

Habitat

Suriname frogs live in the rivers of the Amazon, as well as distributed in the following countries:

• South America;
• Peru;
• Brazil;
• Bolivia.

Pipa spends its entire life in water. Usually these frogs live in small bodies of water and do not leave them throughout their lives. There are seven species of Suriname toads. Travelers report that the pipa leads a quiet, clumsy lifestyle. It crawls languidly along the bottom of forest swamps. Also, some individuals of this species live in irrigation canals and plantations.

Nutrition, behavior

Pipa feeds on what it can find at the bottom. Using its forelimbs, the frog loosens the bottom and tries to catch nutrient particles. The main species is the Suriname toad, which is active at night and does not leave the water area.

Despite special love to the water space, frogs of this species have pulmonary and cutaneous respiration, characteristic of terrestrial species.

Males in mating season They make interesting sounds, clicks with a metallic sound.

Reproduction

The Surinamese pipa impresses not only with its specific appearance, but also with its special breeding process. Newborn representatives of this species, being mature young frogs, emerge into the world directly from the mother’s back.

Once Surinamese peeps reach sexual maturity (about 6 years), a rather fascinating process begins. It all starts with the male trying to “mount” the female in order to fertilize. If the female is ready, she the body becomes numb, the frogs begin their mating dance. This process begins at night and lasts until the morning, when the female pipa lays a certain number of eggs. Afterwards, the female dives to the bottom, trying to catch them. The male helps the female collect the eggs and “glues” them into her back. Females of this species of toad have special cells on their backs where future offspring are placed.

After the future peeps are sorted into cells, the female Suriname toad begins to get rid of the “excess”. On the back, in the birth compartments gray liquid appears, absorbing fertilized pipa eggs, separating them from debris and unfertilized eggs. This process ends with the molting of the frog.

The eggs develop in the same way as other frogs, only in a very specific place. Little peeps get their nutrition from the mother's body. After a while, young Suriman frogs open the veil that hides them from the outside world and leave the back of mother pipa.

Toads usually mature within two weeks. A couple of days before “leaving the nest,” the capsule in which the pipa tadpole exists increases in size and cracks. Young peeps make a forced march to the surface of the reservoir to breathe. Some frogs succeed in this only on the third or fourth try.

At first, tadpoles feed on bacteria and ciliates. Having reached a length of 34-40 millimeters, the tadpoles begin to grow limbs and lose their tail; during this period they live off the protein accumulated in the body and nothing else. As soon as the tail disappears, a full-fledged mouth is formed, the frog begins to eat live food and breathe with the help of its lungs.

Surinamese pipa as a pet

If desired, these unusual creatures can be kept at home, like pet(not everyone likes dogs and cats). It is important to provide them with suitable conditions. First of all you need a large and deep aquarium(more than a hundred or two liters). Pipa leads night look life, therefore it is worth providing for it (them) maximum quantity small “shelters” and general dim lighting.

Frogs feed on all sorts of little things, you can use:

• Bloodworm;
• Earthworms;
• Water fleas;
• Even small fish.

The feeding process takes on average ten minutes. As soon as she's had her fill, any waste must be removed so that the new resident of the aquarium does not pick up any infection.

For decorating an aquarium with Surinamese pipa You can use artificial and real plants inside; there are no restrictions in this regard. The bottom may be strewn with gravel, although the toad will absolutely not care.

PIPA FROGS - photo, reproduction, content

Date: 2017-03-31

PEEPS IN AQUARIUMS

Pipa frogs appeared in our aquariums relatively recently. The Surinamese pipa is well known; it is written about in all textbooks and books telling about the amazing ingenuity of nature. However, the Surinamese pipa cannot be classified as an aquatic frog: after completing the breeding cycle, it leaves the water, and keeping it in aquariums and terrariums is associated with great difficulties. In 1979 the famous herpetologist from the GDR Jurgen Obet brought to Leningrad new look aquatic pips- Pipa Corvalho was described by M. Ribeiro in 1937).

Photo of pipa frog

These frogs live in Brazilian stagnant waters, both in lowlands and at an altitude of up to 1000 m among thickets of plants and snags, preferring a soft muddy bottom (when frightened, they bury themselves in the mud).

Their body is whiter, flattened than that of, the head, when viewed from above, has a triangular structure. At the ends of the fingers of the forelimbs there are star-shaped formations characteristic of pips. Young peeps are lighter in color, the belly is almost white, the head is dark underneath.

Peeps when young, they are similar in appearance to Hymonochirus of the same size. They can be distinguished by the following characteristics.

Pipas are more swift, quickly rise to the surface of the water and rush down even faster and hide at the bottom, while hymenochiruses swim more slowly, move calmly in the water column and, only when frightened, quickly go down and hide. And another difference. Hymenochirus usually swims with the toes of the forelimbs bent; pipas swim with the toes pointing forward; unlike Hymenochirus, they do not have membranes between the toes of the forelimbs. With these limbs they grab pieces of food or live food and stuff them into their mouths.

At optimal conditions peeps spend all their time in the water and do not want to leave aquatic environment. If conditions worsen (water deteriorates or overheats, food supply stops), frogs of any age quickly leave the water. They freely climb the glass, sticking to it with their belly, and find the smallest cracks.

Photo of pipa frog

Naturally, in the dry air of rooms they quickly jump only until the skin dries, and then death occurs. Frogs are indifferent to the depth of water in the aquarium; it can be 10 cm or 1 m. They do not harm plants. With small and big fish get along normally and only in the rarest cases can a large pipa grab a gaping fish. Large frogs receive significant blows from cichlids and ancistrus.

What do peeps eat?

By the nature of their diet they are close to clawed frogs: juveniles take only live food (enchytraea, tubifex, bloodworms), adults (from the third month of life) willingly eat pieces of meat and fish.

Hymenochirus is known to prefer live food throughout its life. Peeps readily collect dry food (daphnia, gammarus) from the surface of the water; they also consume concentrated flakes - for example, tetramin.

They eat a lot and greedily, getting fat right before our eyes. Increased feeding serves as one of the stimulants of reproduction.

Reproduction of Carvalho's pipa

Reproduction and development of P. carvalhoi normally occurs in water with a hardness of 5° at a temperature of 20−30°C. Harder water is undesirable. P.carvalhoi is of great interest to hobbyists primarily because of its amazing method of reproduction. Males are smaller than females, more flattened when viewed from the side, and sometimes their color is darker. The capture of a female by a male occurs in the same way as in all tailless amphibians.

First there is a series of short test captures. If the female is not ready, the male quickly releases her. The ready female becomes numb at the moment of capture, and a slight trembling runs through her body; Having received this signal, the male firmly closes his forelimbs. In this position, frogs can swim for 24 hours. Typically, capture occurs at night, and the act of mating itself occurs at dawn.

A copulating pair floats on open space and suddenly turns over with its belly up 5-10 cm from the surface. The male is on the bottom, his abdomen lags behind the female’s back. At this moment, 6-12 eggs emerge from the female’s cloaca; under the influence of gravity, they slide down and slightly forward (the frogs’ heads at this moment are lower than the rear parts of the body) and fall into the gap between the female’s back and the male’s abdomen.

At the same time, the eggs are fertilized. Then the pipa frogs turn over to their normal position and the male, with his abdomen, presses the sticky eggs into the back of the female. Acts of egg laying follow one after another with an interval of 5−15 minutes. In total, frogs turn over 40-50 times. During this time they lay (in our conditions) from 50 to 170 eggs.

Naturally, subsequent clutches cause more trouble for the male than the first: with his abdomen he forms the eggs so that they lie on the female’s back in one row, although new clutches in a fertile couple slide over the eggs pressed to the back. With his hind legs, moving them far forward, the male collects eggs from the sides of the female’s body and from her head and forms them in one layer on a strictly defined area of ​​her back.

Photo of pipa frog

Individual eggs fall to the bottom and stick to plants, but they no longer develop. If the eggs are removed from the female’s back and placed in a separate vessel, then even under optimal conditions () they will not incubate. Apparently, the pressing of eggs by the male into the back of the female is one of important points successful reproduction, At the end of egg laying, the male leaves the female. Now you can clearly see all the masonry on her back. The eggs are large (up to 1.4 mm in diameter), ivory-colored (the degree of yellowness varies), and lie in a dense compact layer.

They are pressed into the female's back by about one quarter. In this form, the female swims and begins to feed. Since they are sticky, debris, pieces of plants, etc. stick to the eggs. Three hours after laying, a gray spongy mass of the same color begins to rise from below the back of the frog, covered with rows of uneven tubercles. Over the course of a day, this mass swells so much that the eggs are almost completely immersed in it, only their light tops are visible - something like an old cobblestone street, long clogged with dirt.

And what’s surprising is that all the debris, crumbs, and unfertilized and defective eggs stuck to the eggs are pushed away. Embryos mature at room temperature in 15 days, at 26−28°C - in 10−12.

Egg maturation occurs unevenly. 3-4 days before the tadpoles emerge, a small hole is formed above each egg through which water enters for the intensively breathing embryo. The female's back becomes like a strainer. A day or two before the tadpole emerges, the egg shell swells and a mound with a hole at the top forms above it.

Pipa tadpoles

The strong tadpoles fly out of the eggs like rockets and rush to the surface to grab a bubble of air. The weak ones emerge from the egg shell slowly, head or tail first, so that the female’s back is literally covered with heads and tails. These tadpoles fall to the bottom and reach the surface in two or three attempts. Having captured an air bubble, they begin to swim horizontally. Their almost spherical body has a diameter of 2.5−3 mm, a transparent tail - 7−9 mm. Tadpoles group in a school, quickly flee from predators, and can burrow into the mud.

They begin to feed on the second day. Tadpoles are filter feeders. Food suitable for clawed frog tadpoles is not suitable for pipa offspring; the difficulty is that they need a thick mass of bacteria and ciliates while maintaining the freshness of the water. Aeration, especially strong aeration, is harmful to tadpoles.

You cannot leave them in a pond with adult frogs - they die from the latter’s secretions. Thus, the most difficult thing in the biotechnology of breeding pips is to create suitable conditions and feed the tadpoles. The development of tadpoles and metamorphosis lasts 6-8 weeks.

Before turning into a frog, tadpoles reach a length of 35-40 mm. First, the hind limbs appear, then the forelimbs, the tail decreases, and the tadpole lives off the protein accumulated in it and does not feed at this time. At this stage, it is slow and seems to float in the water column. At this moment it is necessary to catch it and transplant it into a pond for the frogs; later this is more difficult to do. The disappearance of the tail coincides with the formation of the frog's mouth, and it switches to active feeding.

By this time, the filtering apparatus is reduced, gill respiration is replaced by pulmonary and cutaneous respiration. Further fate baby frogs depend on the abundance of live food (tubifex, enchytrea, bloodworms) and their timely sorting by size. After the tadpoles emerge, the female frog rubs against the stones, cleans off the remains of the egg shells from her back, and then moults. From this moment on, she is ready to mate again.

M. MAKHLIN, I. MIZGIREV

Fish farming and fishing 1984 No. 2

Surinamese pipa - toad, which can be found in the waters of the Amazon River basin in South America. This species belongs to the pipidae family, a class of amphibians. The unique one is capable of bearing offspring right on her back for almost three months.

Description and structural features of the Surinamese pipa

Distinctive feature An amphibian is the structure of its body. If you look at photo of Suriname pipa, you might think that the frog accidentally fell under the skating rink. The thin, flattened body looks more like an outdated tree leaf than a living inhabitant warm waters tropical river.

The head is triangular in shape, and is also flattened, like the body. Tiny eyes, devoid of eyelids, are located at the top of the muzzle. It is noteworthy that Pipa frogs tongue and teeth missing. Instead, at the corners of the mouth, the toad has skin flaps similar to tentacles.

The front legs end in four long toes without claws and without membranes, as is the case in ordinary frogs. But the hind limbs are equipped with powerful skin folds between the toes. This allows the unusual animal to feel confident underwater.

Having poor eyesight, sensitive fingers help peepa navigate underwater

The body of an average individual does not exceed 12 cm, but there are also giants whose length can reach 20 cm. The skin of the Surinamese pipa is rough, wrinkled, sometimes with black spots on the back.

The color is not distinguished by bright colors, it is usually gray-brown skin with a lighter belly, often with a longitudinal dark stripe that goes to the throat and encircles the neck. In addition to its very poor external appearance, pipa is “rewarded” by nature with a strong odor reminiscent of hydrogen sulfide.

Lifestyle and nutrition of the Surinamese pipa

Surinamese pipa lives in warm, muddy bodies of water, without strong currents. The American pipa is also found in the vicinity of people - in the irrigation canals of plantations. The favorite muddy bottom serves as a feeding ground for the toad.

With its long fingers, the frog loosens the viscous soil, dragging food into its mouth. She is helped in this by special skin growths on her front legs in the form of stars, which is why pipa is often called “star-fingered”.

Surinamese pipa feeding organic residues that are dug up in the ground. These can be pieces of fish, worms and other insects rich in protein.

Despite the fact that the frog has quite developed characteristic features land animals (rough skin and strong lungs), pipas practically do not appear on the surface.

Exceptions are periods heavy rains in areas of Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and other territories South America. Then the flat toads clumsily crawl out of the water and set off on a journey hundreds of meters from home, basking in warm, dirty tropical puddles.

Thanks to mother skin, all pipa's offspring always survive

Reproduction and lifespan

The onset of seasonal rains signals the onset of the breeding season. Surinamese pipas different sexes, although externally it is quite difficult to distinguish a male from a female. The male begins the courtship dance with a “song”.

By making a metallic clicking sound, the gentleman lets the female know that he is ready to mate. Approaching the chosen one, the female begins to throw unfertilized eggs directly into the water. The male immediately releases sperm, giving rise to a new life.

After that expectant mother sinks to the bottom and catches the eggs ready for development directly on its back. The male plays an important role in this action, evenly distributing the eggs over the female’s back.

With its abdomen and hind legs, it presses each egg into the skin, forming something like a cell. After a few hours, the frog's entire back becomes like a honeycomb. Having finished his work, the careless father leaves the female along with the future offspring. This is where his role as head of the family ends.

In the photo, pipa eggs are attached to her back.

For the next 80 days, the pipa will hatch eggs on its back, resembling a kind of mobile phone. kindergarten. For one litter Suriname toad produces up to 100 small frogs. All offspring located on the back expectant mother, weighs about 385 grams. Agree, this is not an easy burden for such a frail amphibian.

When each egg has settled in its place, its outer part is covered with a durable membrane that performs a protective function. The cell depth reaches 2 mm.

While in the mother's body, the embryos receive from her body everything necessary for development nutrients. The partitions of the “honeycomb” are abundantly supplied with blood vessels that deliver nutrition and oxygen.

After 11-12 weeks of maternal care, young peeps break through the film of their personal cell and break out into a huge water world. They are quite independent in order to lead a lifestyle as close as possible to the lifestyle of an adult.

Young peeps leave their cells

Although babies are born fully formed from the mother’s body, this phenomenon is not considered a “live birth” in its true meaning. The eggs develop in the same way as in other representatives of amphibians, unique distinction is only a place for the development of a new generation.

Freed from the young frogs, back of a Surinamese pipa requires updating. To do this, the toad rubs its skin against stones and algae, thereby discarding the worn-out “baby spot.”

Until the next rainy season, the peep frog can live happily. Young animals will be capable of independent reproduction only after reaching 6 years of age.

The back of a pipa after the birth of baby toads

Breeding Surinamese pipa at home

Neither appearance, nor the pungent smell stop exotic lovers from breeding this amazing animal at home. Watching the process of gestation of larvae and the birth of little frogs is fascinating not only for children, but also for adults.

In order for the pipa to feel comfortable, you need a large aquarium. One frog requires at least 100 liters of water. If you plan to purchase two or three individuals, add the same amount to each.

The water must be well aerated, so take care in advance of a similar system for saturating the aquarium with oxygen. Temperature needs to be monitored carefully. The mark should not be higher than 28 C and lower than 24 C.

Fine gravel and sand are usually poured onto the bottom. Artificial or live algae will help the Suriname toad feel at home. Pipas are not picky when it comes to food. Dry food for amphibians, as well as larvae, are suitable for them. earthworms and small pieces of live fish.

Bowing to the surprisingly strong maternal instinct for amphibians, children's writer (and part-time biologist) Boris Zakhoder dedicated one of his poems to the Surinamese pipa. So a distant and little-known frog became famous not only in the South, but also in Russia.

What kind of living creatures can you find in wildlife. Each has its own difference, a special uniqueness. It would seem common toads what might be unusual about them. It's worth getting to know them better.

Description and structural features of the Surinamese pipa

Peeps Surinamese This toads, belonging to the amphibian tailless family Pipidae. South America, Brazil, Peru, Suriname - these are all countries, places habitat Surinamese pips.

She settles in lakes and rivers. It can also be found on farm plantations in irrigation canals. And nothing in this life can force frogs to get out of the water.

Even during periods of great drought, somewhere she will find a dirty, small, silted puddle and will wait in it until the onset of more favorable conditions for her life.

And with the onset of the rainy seasons, she begins a new life full of travel. From puddle to puddle, from pond to pond, she will wander, following the flow of streams. And so the toad traveler will freely swim around the entire perimeter surrounding it up and down.

But, despite her unearthly love for water, she can lead a terrestrial lifestyle with absolutely no harm to her health. The frog's lungs are well developed, and it also has fairly rough skin, which allows it to be freely even in the sun.

Look at photo of Surinamese pipa, the frog itself is obviously an incredible animal. From a distance it can be confused with some kind of leaf or piece of paper.

It is like a fifteen-centimeter flat quadrangle, which at one end ends in triangles with an acute angle. It turns out that he acute angle is the head of the frog itself, imperceptibly emerging from the body.

The amphibian's eyes are located far from each other, on two sides of the head and look upward. This animal does not have a tongue, and scraps of skin resembling tentacles hang near the corners of its mouth.

The animal's front paws are not at all similar to the paws of its relatives; there are no membranes between its four toes, with the help of which frogs swim. With its forelimbs, it obtains food by raking up kilograms of silt, which is why it has long, strong phalanges.

On the very edges of the fingers, small star-shaped processes grew in the form of warts. Therefore, many people know them as Star-toed Surinamese pipa.

Hind limbs larger size than the front ones, there are membranes between the toes. With their help, the pipa swims well, especially during its travels.

The color of the frog is, frankly, a camouflage color, matching the tone of the dirt in which it is poking around, either dark gray or dirty brown. Its abdomen is slightly lighter, and some have a dark stripe along its entire length.

But what distinguishes the Surinamese pipa from all other frogs is its hypermaternity. The whole point is that Surinamese pipa bears her children on her own back. There, on its back, it naturally has special depressions of a size suitable for the development of tadpoles.

This frog has one drawback, its terrible-smelling body "scent". Perhaps nature came to her aid here, firstly, more than one predator who wanted to eat pipu could not stand such a smell.

Secondly, with its smell the amphibian notifies of its presence, since due to its appearance it is not too noticeable. And hiding in a drought, in a small dirty puddle, you can easily crush it, simply without seeing it, but because of the stench, it is impossible not to smell it.

Lifestyle and nutrition of the Surinamese pipa

Living its entire life in the water among algae, mud and rotten driftwood, the pipa leads a fishy lifestyle and feels comfortable. Her eyelids, palate and tongue are completely atrophied.

However, accidentally getting out, the Surinamese pipa turns into a sloth. She clumsily, slowly tries to crawl somewhere, and having reached the nearest swamp, she does not leave it until it is completely dry.

If a frog crawls to the river, then it chooses those places where there is no current. Feeds Surinamese pipa mainly in the dark. They look for their food at the bottom of the reservoir in which they settled.

With their long, four-legged forelimbs, pipas loosen the mud that gets in their way, and with the help of star-shaped wart-shaped processes they look for food. Everything that comes up is mostly small fish, worms, and bloodworms, the Suriname frog drags it into its mouth.

Reproduction and lifespan

Surinamese pips, ready for reproduction when her body grows to the size of a matchbox, that is, five centimeters. Pipa toads reach this size in the sixth year of their life. Pipa boys are a little more different from their girls dark color, and smaller in size.

Before mating begins, like a gallant gentleman, the male serenades his chosen one, clicking and whistling. If the lady is not in the mood for a meeting, the gentleman will not insist. Well, if the female is ready, she freezes for a moment and begins to have a slight tremor. For a male, this behavior is a guide to action.

Their mating dances begin, or rather, everything that happens, lasting for 24 hours, is very similar to dances. The female begins to lay eggs, the male, using all his dexterity and dexterity, catches them and carefully places them in each “mini house” located on the back of the expectant mother.

The female can lay from sixty to one hundred and sixty eggs. But she doesn’t do it right away. Gradually, the frog lays ten sticky eggs, the male deftly places them on the female’s back, pressing his belly against her.

The man immediately fertilizes the eggs, and, using his hind paws, compactly inserts each one into its own house, presses his tummy against the back of the female, as if pressing them. Then after a ten minute rest the process is repeated.

Some eggs may fall out of the father's paws and stick to the vegetation, but they will no longer give new life. When the female finishes spawning, the male secretes a special mucus to seal each house until the offspring emerge. Afterwards, hungry and tired, he leaves his partner forever, and his mission is over. The female also swims away in search of food.

After a couple of hours, out of nowhere from under the “houses” for the tadpoles, a certain liquid mass appears from the very bottom, which rises upward, attaching to itself all the garbage that was on the toad’s back.

Also, with the help of this mass, eggs are culled; those that are small and without embryos are also removed. Afterwards, the pipa rubs its back against some surface to clean off all the dirt.

For the next eighty days, the expectant mother will faithfully carry the eggs on herself. When the tadpoles are fully formed and ready to live independently, the top of each egg swells and a small hole forms in it.

At first it serves for breathing of the unborn baby. Then, through it, the tadpoles get out. Some walk with their tails first, some with their heads.

From the side, looking at the frog, you can see that its back is dotted with the heads and tails of babies. The tadpoles very quickly leave their temporary home and the stronger ones instantly rush to the surface of the water to breathe in the air.

The weaker ones, having fallen to the bottom several times, still reach their goal in the next attempt to swim out. Then all of them, gathered in one group, head towards a new life that has not yet been explored for them. Now they have to independently escape from enemies, look for food for themselves, burying themselves in the muddy bottom of the reservoir.

At the seventh week of their life, the tadpoles are ready for transformation and begin to turn into a frog. They grow three to four centimeters, first the hind legs form, then the front ones, and soon the tail disappears.

Well, the accomplished mother, having wiped herself thoroughly on the stones and shed her old skin, is ready again for love adventures in a new image. Surinamese peeps live in a favorable environment for up to fifteen years.

Breeding Surinamese pipa at home

For lovers of exotics and those who want to keep such a toad, you need to know that it needs space. Therefore, the aquarium should be at least one hundred liters. If you place your unusual pet in a three hundred liter house, the toad will only be happy.

Under no circumstances should you add aquarium frogs to frogs; the predator pipa will definitely eat them. The upper surface of the aquarium is covered with a mesh or a lid with holes, otherwise the peeps, suddenly getting bored at night, can get out of it and die.

The water temperature should be room temperature, twenty to twenty-five degrees. You can take well-settled tap water. Also, it should not be salty and well saturated with oxygen. You can cover the bottom of the aquarium with beautiful gravel, put all kinds of vegetation there for beauty, but the frog still won’t eat it.

Well, you need to feed it with large bloodworms, fry, earthworms, daphnia, and hamarus. You can give small pieces raw meat. Pipa is a very voracious amphibian; she will eat as much as is offered to her.

Therefore, to avoid obesity, control the amount of food. If obesity begins in at a young age, the frog's vertebrae become deformed and an ugly hump grows on its back.

It is important to know that Surinamese pipas are shy; under no circumstances should you knock on the glass of the aquarium with anything. In fright, she will rush around and may break violently against its walls.

Niramin - Mar 17th, 2016

The pipa toad lives in the savannas of South America, preferring any body of water for its residence during the dry season: rivers, ponds, irrigation canals and even half-dried puddles. With the coming wet season these amphibians get out of their homes and set off on a journey through the flooded tropical forests to continue your family line.

The pipa toad looks like a flat, quadrangular-shaped leaf. The triangular head has upward-facing eyes, and flaps of skin at the corners of the mouth resemble tentacles. The body length of an adult is about 20 cm. The pipa's body is colored brown and gray, corresponding to the muddy bottom where it usually spends most of its time. Unlike ordinary frogs, pipas do not have membranes on their forelimbs. Instead of membranes, this toad has thin, long fingers, with which it digs in the bottom mud in search of food. The hind limbs are strong and powerful, equipped with membranes with which the pipa swims. Interestingly, these representatives of amphibians lack teeth and tongue. In addition to these features, this toad emits a rather harsh and bad smell, reminiscent of the smell of sulfur.

Pipa feeds on small living creatures that it finds in the mud: worms, small fish and various food particles.

Despite its ugly appearance and unpleasant smell, the pipa toad is considered an example of caring for its offspring. The fact is that the female carries her eggs directly on her back. At first, she lays eggs like an ordinary frog, but the male picks them up and places them in special cells formed on the female’s back. As they develop, the eggs enlarge and are increasingly pressed into the deepening cells. Over the course of 80-85 days, the embryos turn into tadpoles, from which tiny cubs develop. The finally formed babies break the outer shell and climb out to begin their independent life.

Photo: Pipa with eggs on her back.

Photo: A frog embryo on the back of a female pipa.

Video: Pipa Suriname Toad

Video: Zoology: Surinamese pipa - caring for offspring

Video: Amazing Pipa Pipa Toad Birth!