As I write this blog this week, you will have to excuse any spelling mistakes or parts where I drift off into waffle as I have entered the world of extreme tiredness. I am readjusting to life with a newborn in the house as I now have a new 5-week-old son to go alongside my threenager (it’s a real thing). So, nights are long and broken and peace and quiet seems a distant memory. However, after watching the miracle of human birth (and all the gross, disgusting bits that go along side it), I thought I’d take this opportunity to delve into the wonders of the animal kingdom and the different ways and means of having babies.
Giraffes
One of the most dangerous and shocking births to witness I feel would be that of the giraffe. To tell if a female giraffe is ready to breed, the male will perform the unpleasant task of smelling her urine. This helps him determine her reproductive status.
After a gestation period of around 15 months, the mother will stand up during labour and push the baby out. Then it drops a good 6 foot to the ground, which helps to break the umbilical cord. The baby is cushioned by the thick amniotic sac as it lands.
Baby giraffes weigh around 60 kilograms and are around 6 foot tall. They are usually able to walk within the first 20 minutes of their life. This is a vital skill to avoid predation in the wild. Having a newborn giraffe around actually puts the whole herd in danger as it needs regular rest making the herd stop moving and again becoming more open to becoming dinner. You can learn more about them on our giraffe experience.
Surinam Toads
Surinam toads are highly aquatic amphibians that mainly live in ponds and murks in South America. Females are bigger than the males, at around 150mm. Their bodies are entirely flat and have triangular heads, so they are often mistaken for rotten leaves. These toads have a birthing story unlike any I’ve heard before and none like any other frog or toad.
The male will make clicking noises to attract a mate and will then climb on top of her gripping tightly for more than 12 hours! They will both perform somersaults in the water during intercourse and the female will release a single egg into the water. The male will fertilise this egg and force it back into the holes on the females back. They will repeat this process around 100 times until the females back has started to look like a swollen honeycomb.
The eggs will then start to develop into the tadpole stage under her skin over the next 4 months. When they are ready to hatch, live formed toadlets will push through the skin of the mothers back and begin to eat straight away. They don’t even care if they eat their own siblings! Something straight out of a horror film if you ask me!
Spotted Hyenas
These creatures best known for their laugh like call have a very tricky birthing procedure which can be very traumatic especially for first time mums. Female hyenas produce a lot more testosterone than the males. This means they have evolved to have a pseudo-penis which they give birth through. This birth canal is only about 1 inch in diameter and so suffocation of the cubs is sadly common.
A successful birth will result in a litter of 1-6 cubs weighing around 1kg each. While both the striped and brown hyena also have the masculinized genitalia, it is only the spotted hyena that gives birth through it. The reasoning behind it is unexplained though. However, there are various theories such as,
- Sexual mimicry; female spotted hyenas benefit from appearing like males, as female hyenas experience a greater level of siblicide than males. Higher ranking females will kill the offspring of lower ranking females to ensure the alpha female’s offspring maintain hierarchy. So by appearing male they stand a better chance of surviving.
- It is an evolutionary by-product of high levels of androgens and testosterone. These steroids made individuals aggressive and were likely responsible for the hyena’s female-dominant social structure. The spotted hyena feeds in groups, with dominant females being the first to feast. A female with high levels of testosterone would be most likely to survive and procreate. Leading to female hyenas evolving with high testosterone levels.
Cichlids and Cuckoo Catfish
Cichlids are from the large fish family called Cichlidae, which includes tilapia and angelfish. When they reproduce, the male puts the fertilized eggs in his mouth, which is where they stay until hatching. This process is called mouthbrooding. The male fish is unable to eat at this time. Sometimes the female fish will carry the fertilized eggs in her mouth, or the male and female will trade off, which is called biparental mouthbrooding. Typically, fish that are born via mouthbrooding are underweight at first and require recovery time to feed and grow.
But just when it seems you have finally figured life and birth out, someone else comes along to mess things up. Enter the cuckoo catfish which like to engage in a chaotic game of cannibalism to give birth.
The catfish use the mouth of the cichlid to harbour her eggs. The cuckoo catfish will actually swim over and lay an egg in the mouth of a cichlid for her to carry. While this is happening, the male cichlid dives in to fertilize what he thinks are the female cichlid’s eggs but are actually the cuckoo catfish’s eggs. All of this happens in a few seconds.
Because the cuckoo catfish eggs grow and hatch faster than the remaining of the cichlid’s eggs, the newborns often eat the cichlid’s own eggs.
New Mexico Whiptail Lizard
As its name suggests, the New Mexico Whiptail Lizard is found mainly in New Mexico and Arizona. It is a crossbreed of a Western Whiptail, which lives in the desert, and the Little Striped Whiptail, which favours grasslands.
The lizard is a female-only species that reproduces by producing an egg through parthenogenesis; they do not need males to reproduce. This is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which growth and development of embryos occur without fertilization by sperm.
The whiptail engages in mating behaviours with other females of its own species. This gives rise to the common nickname “lesbian lizards”. A common theory is that this behaviour stimulates ovulation, as those that do not “mate” do not lay eggs.
Maybe we do have an easy ride of it after all!
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