Surinam Toad

Genus Pipa

Amphibian

Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about Surinam toads. Hop on that subscribe button, and thank you to Matthew Phillips and family for today’s request. Heads up! This video might gross some people out. If you have an aversion to clusters of holes, we recommend trying another one of our videos with something a little less freaky! There are a couple points we want to clear up about the names of these amphibians before we go any further. Surinam toads are named so because they’re found in Suriname, but they’re found in other countries, too. Also, they’re likely called toads because of their rough skin, but they’re kind of more like frogs.

Technically, all toads are frogs, but most people associate toads as land living, bumpy skinned animals while frogs are smooth skinned and live in moist places. While these froggos certainly have some funky skin, which we’ll be discussing later in this video, Surinam toads spend their time almost exclusively in water. They live in slow moving to stagnant rivers and streams. They prefer muddy water because it helps disguise them. Surinam toads come in muddy brown colors and look a little squashed. This makes them look like a dead leaf floating in the water; since dead leaves aren’t the most fun food for many predators, Surinam toads are generally left alone. It’s not like they would make a big meal, well, most of them anyway.

The largest Surinam toads can reach eight inches (20 centimeters) in length which is a hefty size, but most species are smaller. There are currently seven described species of Surinam toads. They all look flat and brown, they all lack tongues, and they all have star-shaped sensory organs at the ends of their fingers. This is where the other, we would argue more appropriate, common name comes in. Surinam toads are also known as... wait for it... star-fingered toads. Those star fingers are used to find food.

Surinam toads are found in South American rainforests with their highest densities occurring in the Amazon River basin. They are ambush predators and will sit and wait, sometimes for hours, for a meal to pass by. When something like a crustacean, small fish, or even a worm gets close, the Surinam toad will launch forward and eat the meal in one bite. Usually they just suck a prey item straight into their mouths, but they can also use their front feet to shovel the food in. These amphibians use the star-shaped sensory organs at the tips of their fingers to detect movement in the murky water, this is how they know prey is nearby.

In order to let female Surinam toads that they’re nearby, male Surinam toads make mating calls. Now, these aren’t like the mating calls of most other toads and frogs. Surinam toads don’t have the vocal cords present in most other frogs. Instead, male Surinam toads use bones in their throats to produce clicking noises which attract the attention of females.

Mating in Surinam toads is quite active. While the male hugs the female from behind, she’ll use her big back feet to do somersaults in the water. When both the male and female are upside-down, or their bellies are facing the water’s surface, the female will lay some eggs. The male will catch the eggs, fertilize them, and as the pair turn back over he’ll stick them to her back. For some reason that isn’t completely understood, the eggs only stick to the female’s back; they don’t stick to the male or each other.

Anyway, the pair will do these somersaults multiple times over until upwards of 100 eggs have been laid. Now this is where things get really fascinating, but also kind of skin crawly. The female’s skin will grow over the eggs and develop a honeycomb like structure around them, eventually encasing them in individual skin sacs. After some time, it can depend on the species, the babies have developed enough to emerge from their mother’s back. In some species, tadpoles will pop out and in other species fully formed, tiny toads will break free.

This all occurs right around the time the female Surinam is getting ready to shed, so once all the babies have broken free, or have been pushed out, she’ll shed her skin and get ready to start the process all over again! While it might give that itchy skin sensation to look at, this is just an example of how awesome, and a little freaky, nature can be!

For more facts on Surinam toads, check out the links in the description. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.