A new animal every day

Today · Friday 23 October 2026

A bright green chameleon with a yellow and brown stripe along its side grips thin twigs, its tail curled into a spiral.
Photo: Ryan van Huyssteen · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist

Picked by voters

Cape dwarf chameleon

It gives birth to live babies, and one batch of babies can have several fathers: in one study, all six batches tested did.

Lives in
GardensBushes, shrubland and leafy gardens in and around Cape Town
More about the Cape dwarf chameleonScientific name, size and Red List status
Scientific name
Bradypodion pumilum
Size
4.5–10 cm long, including the tail
IUCN Red List
Near threatened

Close to qualifying as threatened, according to the IUCN Red List. See the assessment

Fact source: Tolley et al., 2014

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This week

Every animal so far
  1. Mon 19Basket star
  2. Tue 20Alpaca
  3. Wed 21Sociable weaver
  4. Thu 22Gumboot chiton
  5. Fri 23Cape dwarf chameleonToday
  6. Sat 24Tomorrow’s animalin 1 h 55 min
  7. Sun 25

Why Animall

People can’t care about animals they have never heard of.

Scientists still discover thousands of new animal species every year, while many others are disappearing because of habitat loss and climate change. Some die out before anyone has described them.

10,000+

new animal species are described every year.

University of Arizona, 2025

86%

of species on Earth, and 91% in the ocean, have not been described yet.

Mora et al., 2011

73%

average drop in monitored wildlife populations between 1970 and 2020.

WWF Living Planet Report, 2024