Surinam Toad

• While mating, the pair turn acrobatic somersaults in the water as the eggs are fertilised.
• It never goes through a free-swimming tadpole stage: the young emerge straight from their mother's back.
• It catches small aquatic vertebrates and invertebrates by suction.
• reproducciónFemales incubate the eggs in small pockets in the skin of their backs, from which the young emerge fully formed.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (amphibian)

Habitat and environment

Murky, swampy, low-oxygen fresh water of the Amazon basin and the Guianas

Birth weight

The larva develops entirely inside cells on the mother's back, with no free tadpole stage

Size at birth

Under 2 cm long as it emerges from its mother's back, already a miniature adult

Sexual maturity

~3 years

Gestation / incubation

80-105 days (12-20 weeks) developing embedded in the skin of the mother's back

Litter / clutch size

60 to 100 eggs per clutch, each embedded in a cell in the skin of the female's back

Life expectancy in captivity

Documented record of up to 7.7 years in captivity

Sources consulted: Flickr (CAS Docents); UWI Life Sciences (Pipa pipa profile); Animal Diversity Web; Britannica; AnAge (genomics.senescence.info); Reptile Apartment; Mary Bates Science Writer; Wikipedia (Common Surinam toad); USGS NAS Species Profile

Best time: All year round in backwaters and turbid water of Amazonia and the Guianas, at night; its dead-leaf appearance makes it almost impossible to pick out from the bottom.

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.