We added to the exhibition of poisonous creatures a pair of Surinam toad (Pipa pipa), considered one of the strangest amphibians on the planet for its morphology and its reproduction. This species is also known in the Guaraní language of the indigenous people of the Amazon as cururú or frog of cells. The purpose of this couple’s arrival is to contribute in the reproduction of this species in captivity and reinforce its conservation.
With the addition of this new aquatic amphibian, the park already has nine different species of frogs: the arrow frog, the monkey frog, the bull frog -considered as the largest in the world- or the devil frog, among other. In this way, the permanent exhibition of the zoo has in total more than 40 different species.
These animals feed mainly on invertebrates, worms and small crustaceans. These frogs usually reach between 5 and 20 centimetres in size. Its appearance, a little bit strange, makes it differentiate from other amphibians and they also have a flattened body and a triangular head shape.
During the mating season, which happens with the rainy season, they make movements and pirouettes in the water to attract the attention of their congeners. The female lays between 80 and 100 eggs that fall on the belly of the male and then the eggs roll towards the female. That’s where they stick on their backs to be incubated by the female.
Thus, the female carries the eggs in a structure of honeycomb on her back until the development of the offspring is completed and they are born as adults in miniature, from this process they have the name of cell frog. The brown and black skin colour allows it to camouflage itself and hide from predators. As a curiosity, their eyes don´t have eyelids and they don´t have tongue either.
The toad populations of Suriname are not currently threatened, although their natural habitat is at risk due to the indiscriminate felling of trees, in addition to other factors. The species is native to the tropical zones of South America and usually coexists in mud zones in wet forests, near the rivers. It is also common to find these specimens under the leaves that appear in flooded lands.