The European Blue-Balled Toad
Will die if it can’t blow its load;
So compassionate parrish folk
Jerk them off, so they don’t croak,
While the ones that abstain still explode.
Come late March, demand’s sure to soar
As heaps of males fail to score;
So, for Bufo orchitus
It’s, indeed, fortuitous
There are sympathetic humans galore.
Check out some truly incredible reproductive strategies that the Surinam toad (Pipa pipa) and Darwin’s Frog (Rhinoderma darwinii) employ. Although the former is not endangered, the latter is the last known species of mouth-brooder in existence. Other similar amphibians are believed to have gone extinct relatively soon after their discovery.
