The basics

Beat Darwin is a free daily animal guessing game. Every day at midnight UTC, a new mystery species is chosen from the global iNaturalist biodiversity database. A real wildlife photo is shown — your job is to name the species.

You have 3 attempts. Guess correctly and you beat Darwin. Miss all three and he wins the round. Come back tomorrow and do it again.

Step by step

Visit beatdarwin.com — a mystery animal photo is displayed.
Choose a species from 9 multiple-choice options. All 9 come from the same taxonomic family as the answer, so you're always comparing close relatives.
Wrong guess? You'll see a hint — first your geographic range, then a size or feature clue on a second wrong guess.
Guess correctly within 3 attempts to beat Darwin. Guess 1 = Darwin sulks. Guess 3 = Darwin barely tolerates it. Fail all 3 = Darwin gloats.
Read up on the animal — after each game, 3 fun facts are shown. Every species has its own fact page with taxonomy, IUCN conservation status, and a Wikipedia summary.
Share your result — a Wordle-style emoji grid (🟩🟥) is generated for you to share on Twitter/X, Bluesky, or WhatsApp.

Hints

Each wrong guess unlocks a hint to help you narrow down the answer:

Hint 1 (after wrong guess 1): Geographic range — the continent or region where this animal lives.
Hint 2 (after wrong guess 2): A physical or behavioural feature — size, diet, habitat, or a distinctive trait.

The 9 answer options are always from the same taxonomic family as the mystery animal. This means you can use your knowledge of the family to narrow things down even without the hints.

Scoring and streaks

Beat Darwin tracks your daily streak — consecutive days where you identified the animal correctly. Your streak is saved in your browser, no account needed.

✅ Guess 1 correct: You beat Darwin convincingly.
✅ Guess 2 correct: You still beat Darwin.
✅ Guess 3 correct: You squeaked past Darwin.
❌ All 3 wrong: Darwin wins. Streak resets to zero.

The game resets at midnight UTC every day. One challenge per day, per browser.

Difficulty

Each day's species is rated Easy, Medium, or Hard based on how widely observed it is in the iNaturalist database. Common, familiar animals (like red foxes) are more likely on easy days. Obscure, rarely photographed species appear on hard days.

The difficulty level is shown next to the species name after each game.

Tips for new players

Look at the background habitat in the photo — desert, rainforest, ocean, and grassland all narrow your options significantly.
All 9 options are from the same family. If you can recognise the general type of animal, you can often eliminate options immediately.
Don't skip the wrong-guess popup — when you guess incorrectly, a mini fact about the animal you guessed appears. It's part of the game.
Install Beat Darwin as an app on your phone's home screen (tap Share → Add to Home Screen) to get a daily push reminder.