Midwife Toad Egg-Carrying — Spain Portugal
The common midwife toad (Alytes obstetricans) egg-carrying behaviour in the rocky hillsides of Spain's Iberian highlands from April through August — the only European amphibian in which the male carries the fertilised egg strings wrapped around his hind legs for 3–6 weeks until the tadpoles are ready to hatch, the male's nocturnal activity (calling from rock crevices with a distinctive, melodious 'ping' note, the most musical of any European frog or toad) creating one of the Peninsula's finest amphibian encounters. The Gredos mountains and the Sierra de Guadarrama's rocky streams produce the finest accessible Spanish midwife toad encounters, and the male's behaviour (carrying the eggs through rock crevices and occasionally moistening them in stream water, a parental investment unparalleled in European amphibians) creates a small-scale wildlife behaviour of considerable evolutionary significance. The toad's call (a bell-like 'poo' note produced at 1-second intervals from stone walls and rocky slopes on warm nights) is one of the Iberian highlands' most characteristic spring and summer sounds.
About this spectacle
On warm spring and summer nights in the rocky highland terrain of Spain's Sierra de Gredos and Sierra de Guadarrama, a remarkable sound fills the air: the bell-like 'ping' or 'poo' note of the common midwife toad, ringing out at steady one-second intervals from stone walls and crevices. Visitors who approach quietly with a torch may glimpse the male — a small, warty figure — carrying strings of fertilised eggs wrapped around his hind legs, a parental feat unmatched among European amphibians. He guards and moistens these egg strings in nearby streams for three to six weeks until the tadpoles are ready to hatch. The setting — boulder-strewn slopes, cool night air, rushing highland streams — amplifies the experience. This is an intimate, close-focus wildlife encounter: no vast herds, but an extraordinary evolutionary behaviour observed at arm's length, with the toad's musical call serving as a signature sound of the Iberian highlands from April through August.
When to go
Apr — Aug
Getting there
Nearest airport: MAD. Nearest city: Ávila.
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