Page 39 - Amphibian

A SAFE PLACE POCKETS FULL OF TOADLETS
The female Surinam toad looks The eggs are placed on the female Surinam
like dead leaves on the muddy toad’s back when the male and female
bottom of the sluggish waters in perform an egg-laying roll, or loop
South America where it lives. movement, underwater. The pair are
After mating, the male fertilizes upside-down when the female lays
the eggs released by the female, about five eggs, which are fertilized
which stick onto a thick, spongy and drop onto her back as the pair
layer of skin on her back. turns right side up in the water. In
all, about 55 eggs are laid in this
way. After four weeks they hatch as
perfect, small toadlets.

HITCHING A LIFT
This little, nonpoisonous frog
from Trinidad is related to the
more brightly colored poison-
dart frogs (pp. 56–57) from
Central and South America. In
this species, the male stays
with the egg clutch. When the
eggs hatch, he carries the
Skin of female entire tadpole brood on his
Surinam toad swells back to a nearby stream,
up, almost completely where they complete their
covering her eggs development. In other closely
related species, the female is
the tadpole carrier.

Some males take on two, or
even three, egg clutches

VOCAL SAC BROODING
The male Darwin’s frog from Chile
watches over his developing clutch of
eggs, and when the newly hatched
tadpoles start to squirm, he takes them
into his vocal sac. The tadpoles remain
there, apparently receiving some form
of nourishment, until they are ejected
as tiny froglets.

THE MALE MIDWIFE
The male midwife toad from western Europe
shows a unique form of parental care – he
carries his egg string of some 35–50 eggs,
wrapped around his hind legs. After the eggs
are laid and fertilized, he keeps hold of the
female and, moving his legs alternately back and
forth through the eggs, fastens them securely
around his legs. After about three weeks he takes
his egg load into the water, where the tadpoles
hatch and complete their development.