A new animal every day

Today · Tuesday 3 November 2026

A warty grey-brown midwife toad on bare stone with a big cluster of glossy dark eggs wrapped around its back legs.
Photo: Diego González Dopico · CC BY 4.0 · iNaturalist

Picked by voters

Common midwife toad

The father carries the eggs wrapped around his ankles for 3 to 6 weeks, bathing now and then to keep them wet, then lets the tadpoles go in water.

Lives in
Stony slopesStony slopes, walls and embankments in western Europe, from Portugal and Spain to Germany
More about the common midwife toadScientific name, size and Red List status
Scientific name
Alytes obstetricans
Size
Up to 5 cm long
IUCN Red List
Least concern

Not threatened at the moment, according to the IUCN Red List. See the assessment

Fact source: Animal Diversity Web

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This week

Every animal so far
  1. Mon 2American bison
  2. Tue 3Common midwife toadToday
  3. Wed 4Tomorrow’s animalin 22 h 19 min
  4. Thu 5
  5. Fri 6
  6. Sat 7
  7. Sun 8

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