Surinam Toad (Pipa pipa)

AmphibianFrogSouth America

Overview

The Surinam toad (Pipa pipa) is one of the strangest amphibians in the world — a large, fully aquatic frog of northern South America that looks like a flattened, mottled brown leaf or a piece of waterlogged debris. Its body is remarkably flat and angular, with tiny lidless eyes, no tongue, and star-tipped fingers used to feel for food in murky water. (Despite the name “toad,” it is a frog, in the tongueless family Pipidae.)

But the Surinam toad is most famous for its astonishing way of reproducing: the eggs become embedded in the skin of the mother's back, where the young develop in individual pockets and eventually emerge as fully formed little froglets.

Note: details here cover Pipa pipa specifically; related Pipa species differ. Treat general statements as approximate and verify against authoritative sources.

Habitat & Range

Surinam toads live in slow-moving and still fresh waters — swamps, ponds, slow streams, and flooded forest — across the Amazon basin and other parts of northern South America. They are almost entirely aquatic, rarely leaving the water, and they rely on their camouflage to lie unnoticed among leaf litter and mud on the bottom.

Diet

Surinam toads are carnivores that feed on worms, insects, small fish, and other small aquatic animals. Having no tongue, they cannot flick out prey like many frogs; instead they detect food with their sensitive, star-tipped fingers and then suck it in with a sudden expansion of the mouth and throat, a vacuum-like gulp.

Behavior

The Surinam toad's reproduction is its most extraordinary trait. During an elaborate underwater courtship, the pair turns and tumbles together, and the released eggs are pressed onto the female's back, where the skin grows over them to form individual pockets. The young develop inside these pockets — skipping a free-swimming tadpole stage in this species — and weeks later push out of the mother's back as miniature adults. Otherwise the Surinam toad is a slow, well-camouflaged ambush feeder that stays still and inconspicuous.

Human Interaction & Conservation

The Surinam toad is a famous curiosity, often featured for its bizarre appearance and remarkable back-brooding reproduction, and it is sometimes kept by specialist aquarists. In the wild it depends on healthy freshwater habitats; the species is generally widespread. Consult authoritative sources for current status.

More photos of the surinam toad