ugly animals

The Surinam Toad

I must say that the Surinam toad tops my personal ugly-animals list. I am already not a big fan of frogs and toads and the fact that the Surinam toad reproduces with its eggs on its back is just too icky. When the female lays its eggs, the eggs get stuck on her back through the male’s movements. The eggs eventually set into holes behind her back and they will stay there until the baby tadpoles become little toads. Imagine, having eggs in holes on your backs! When the babies are ready, they will hatch and swim away from its mother, leaving the holes behind. I am getting goose bumps typing this.

Outside the breeding season, this toad looks like a flat piece of leaf. It is how they disguise themselves. An interesting fact about the Surinam toad (also known as the Pipa) is that it does not croak. It produces a clicking sound instead. There are several subspecies of Surinam toads. The average size of this toad is about 6-8 inches. They are mostly found in South America.

Deep Sea Anglerfish

The Deep Sea Anglerfish is actually a relative of the much more colorful (and cuter) frog fish that live in coral reefs. There are many types of Deep Sea Anglerfish and most of them look pretty nasty. I am little torn between calling them ugly or scary. Many would agree that they are one group of ugly animals. The terms Anglerfish came around because this fish species has a sort of fishing rod hanging from its back. It is in truth a dorsal fin extension that is used to lure in prey. Some anglerfish uses the lure to mimic small fish/shrimp or worms. Deep Sea Anglerfish on the other hand usually uses bioluminescence at the end of the lure to lure-in prey (it is very dark where they live).

In most species, the males are much smaller than females. In the Gigantactis genus, the females can reach sizes of up to 40cm while the males have a maximum size of about 2cm. When a male finds a female, the male deep sea anglerfish will bite on the female and will feed from the female’s bloodstream. It also delivers the sperm for reproduction while it hangs on to the female. The male will stay with the female for the rest of its life. The eggs of deep-sea anglerfishes have large amounts of oil. This enables the eggs to float to the surface so that the babies can feed on the plankton when it hatches.