Amazing Dads

Giant water bug with eggs on its back

Darwin frog

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Animal and bird dads of many species in this world perform enterprising and caring roles.

First, the giant male bug also called the toe- biter commonly found in the standing freshwater or gently running waters with aquatic vegetation in the North and South America and East Asia. This is often mistaken for a cockroach or a beetle. Eggs are laid on the wings of the males and hatched there. The eggs are exposed to the sun by the male to prevent fungus and improve their viability. A series of skillful movements by the male improves oxygen diffusion. Hatching takes about three weeks, but this decreases as the temperature rises. The males cannot mate during this period. It is the male that invests much time and energy in reproduction.

Look at the tiny one-inch Darwin’s frogs, the amphibians of the temperate forests of southern Argentina and Chile named after Charles Darwin and is mentioned in his world voyage, "Voyage of the Beagle". The breeding season starts in Spring and continues into summer. The female lays about three to seven eggs and leaves the male for about 20 days. The male then takes the eggs into its vocal sac, which hatch there into tadpoles and remain there for a bout 70 days till they turn froglets. During this process, the male’s chest is puffed with the growing tadpoles. The tadpoles eat the leftover yolk from their eggs and the food of the male available through the skin of his vocal sac. The new froglets then of the father’s mouth and swim away. Scientists evince keen interest in this unusual method of reproduction.

Among birds, the female Emperor lays one egg, which the male penguin incubates while the female goes back to the sea. The male keeps the egg warm in its feet covered by its stomach in a “brood pouch” for 72 days during the Antarctic winters. He feeds the young one with a milk-like product from a gland in his esophagus. During this feeding, the male loses half his body weight.

Source: Google

Images: Google