Midwife Toad

Scientific Classification

KINGDOM: Animalia

PHYLUM: Chordata

CLASS: Amphibia

ORDER: Anura

FAMILY: Alytidae

GENUS: Alytes

The common midwife toad Alytes obstetricans on moss

A young Common midwife toad, Alytes obstetricans leaving the pond where it was born

A young Common midwife toad in shallow pond

A man touching nose of young midwife toad

Common Midwife Toad

Moroccan Midwife Toad and Iberian Midwife Toad

Betic Midwife Toad and Majorcan Midwife Toad

Midwife toads can grow between 1.25 – 2 inches long. They have stocky bodies, large heads, short legs, and golden eyes with vertical pupils.

Their coloring depends on their environment, but they are usually a gray or brown color with lighter colored stomachs and warts. Some midwife toads have thicker stocky bodies while others have flattened bodies allowing them to hide in deep crevices.

All of these frogs have partially webbed toes since they spend more time on solid ground than in the water.

Like other toads and frogs, midwife toads store poison in their warts. When the midwife toad feels threatened, it will excrete the strong-smelling poison from the warts on its back. If attacked, the toxin is so strong, it can kill a venomous adder snake within hours. This protects the adults from natural predators, but the tadpoles are defenseless until they’re older.

There are five species of midwife toads that are found across northern Africa, western Europe, and Majorca in the Mediterranean. These frogs can live in a variety of habitats from forests, to quarries, to sand dunes, all the way to the snowy Pyrenees mountains at heights of 5,000-6,500 feet!

Most frog species have long, thin tongues, while the midwife toad has a round, sticky tongue. Midwife toads will hide under rocks or logs during the day and come out at night to search for food. Adults use their sticky tongue to feed on a variety of prey such as snails, worms, beetles, crickets, and more. Tadpoles will eat vegetable matter until they grow up enough to eat smaller versions of what adults eat.

Mating season for midwife toads is the early half of the year where males will make a bell-like sounds to attract females to mate. Females will release a string of eggs and the males will fertilize them. These frogs are named after the fathers’ ability to wrap the strings of eggs around his legs and carry them with him to protect them against predators. Once ready to hatch, the fathers will swim into shallow water and release the eggs.