Animal Mothers That Carry Babies on Their Backs

07 Nov,2023

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Great apes — gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans — are our closest primate relatives, and all are known to carry their young on their backs. 

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Chimpanzee

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Horned marsupial frog

The term "marsupial" typically conjures images of mammals that tote their young in furry pouches, such as kangaroos, koalas, and other denizens of the Australian continent. 

Swan mothers have also been observed providing especially devoted attention to their young — known as cygnets — by serving as a temporary flotation device to help the little ones as they learn to swim.

Swan

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Wolf spiders practice a form of infant care that is unique among spiders. As soon as the spiderlings emerge from their egg sac, they immediately clamber onto their mother's back.

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Wolf spider

The grey, tongueless, triangle-headed and curiously flat Surinam toad (Pipa pipa) is almost entirely aquatic, living in lowland rainforests in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, the Guianas, Peru and Trinidad.

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Surinam toad

The newborns drag themselves into the mother's pouch with their muscular front legs — only about eight of them will survive the journey. 

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Opossum

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Scorpion

Keeping track of up to 100 babies is a daunting task for any mother, and female scorpions do so by carrying their scores of young — called scorplings — on their backs until the scorplings' first molt.

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Whip spider

Females lay between 6 and 60 eggs, which they carry around in a leathery sac for around three months until the eggs hatch. When the babies first emerge, they are white and very soft, and cling to their mother until after their next molt.

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Banded horned tree frog

The banded horned tree frog (Hemiphractus fasciatus) has a distinctive triangular "helmet" adorning its head, and is found in parts of Ecuador, Panama and Colombia. It does not have a tadpole stage in its life cycle.