Human birth can be a bumpy ride, but nature has devised some even more surprising – and often extreme – ways of bringing new life into the world. Across land, sea and sky, animals have evolved to give birth in a variety of weird and wonderful ways. From starved octopus mothers to zombie spider wasps, here are some of the weirdest and most fascinating animal births.
Weirdest animal births
The Surinam toad’s young burst through holes in its back
The female Surinam toad lays around 100 eggs, and the male toad will then fertilise them and place them on the female’s back. Here, skin goes over the eggs to protect them for a week or so, until tadpoles emerge from the skin. We named the Surinam toad as among the weirdest frogs in the world.
Octopuses give birth, starve themselves and then often die
Many octopuses will starve themselves during the brooding period, and for many octopuses this famine will last a few months – but for deep-sea octopuses it can be much longer. The female octopus will often die, most likely of starvation. The deep-sea octopus Graneledone boreopacifica has the longest brooding period of any known animal, with researchers following one female whose marathon brood lasted four and a half years.
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Giraffes give birth standing up
Giraffes will occasionally sit or lie down, but they spend most of their lives standing up – and birth is no different. The female giraffe is pregnant for 14-15 months, at which point she will go into labour. The baby giraffe will drop to the ground, which is a considerable drop, but this helps to break the giraffe’s umbilical cord. At birth, the giraffe is tall enough to reach its mother’s teats.
The painful birth of spotted hyenas
The birth of a spotted hyena is often referred to as the most painful animal birth. Giving birth through their narrow clitoris, a female spotted hyena has a birth canal of only about one inch across, making it both painful and risky. Many babies don’t survive, as suffocation is common, and first-time mothers often die during labour.
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Male seahorses birth young in a pouch
The seahorse is an outlier in the animal kingdom, with eggs transferred into the male instead of the female. The male seahorses will hold the eggs in its brood pouch to fully develop through gestation. We named seahorses as among the best parents in the animal kingdom.
Platypus is one of very few mammals that lay eggs
The platypus builds a burrow and lay eggs. After a gestation period of two weeks, the eggs are then incubated for another 10 days, warmed under its tail.
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Cichlids are mouth-brooders
Cichlids are freshwater fish that keep their young in the mouth during the brooding period. The male will usually put the fertilised eggs in his mouth, where they will stay until hatching – although prevents the male from eating during this time (which lasts between 10 and 15 days). Sometimes, the parents will share the load and exchange the eggs between them. We included cichlids in our round-up of the weirdest fish in the world.
Porcupines are born with their quills
Baby porcupines – or porcupettes – are born with their quills, though they remain soft in the womb and during birth, so as not to harm the mother. The quills will harden within a few days of being outside the womb.
Did you know? The porcupine is one of the only animals that can kill lions.
Kiwis lay enormous eggs
The egg of a kiwi weighs up to 20 per cent of its mother’s body size, making it the largest egg proportional to the body size of any bird in the world. It is said to be the equivalent of a human giving birth to a four-year-old child.
Marsupials finish their gestation in their mother's pouch
Kangaroos, wallabies, possums and other marsupials don’t have a placenta like other mammals, so their babies only gestate for about a month and are born in an embryonic state. Their front limbs are developed enough to climb into the mother kangaroo’s pouch, which is where they do the rest of their growing. Their mouth is also developed at this stage, so they are able to drink milk from their mother during this stage.
Did you know? Wallabies are one of many animals that get high on drugs.
Spider wasps use zombie spiders as a nest
To reproduce, a spider wasp will injure a huntsman spider to the point of paralysis. It will then lay an egg on the huntsman spider’s stomach and seal it in a burrow until the egg hatches. The wasp later eats the spider.
The giant huntsman spider is one of the biggest spiders in the world.
Top image credit: Getty Images