World's Most Interesting Animals

8/14/2019 World's Most Interesting Animals

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Worlds Most Interesting Animals

Leafy Sea dragons

Named after the dragons of Chinese mythology, Leafy seadragons (Phycodurus eques) resemble a piece

of drifting seaweed as they float in the seaweed-filled water. The Leafy seadragon, with green, orange

and gold hues along its body, is covered with leaf-like appendages, making it remarkably camouflaged.

Only the fluttering of tiny fins or the moving of an independently swiveling eye, reveals its presence. Like

the seahorse, the male seadragon carries as many as 150-200 eggs. After being deposited by the

female, the eggs are carried in the honeycomb-shaped area (known as the brood patch) under the male's

tail for approximately eight weeks. Seadragons have no teeth or stomach and feed exclusively on

mysidopsis shrimp. Known as "Australian seahorses" in Australia, they are found in calm, cold water that

is approximately 50-54 F (10-12 C). Leafy seadragons have been protected by the South Australian

government since 1982.

Sun Bear


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Angora Rabbit

The Angora rabbit is a variety of domestic rabbit bred for its long, soft hair. The Angora is one of the

oldest types of domestic rabbit, originating in Ankara, Turkey, along with the Angora cat and Angora goat.

The rabbits were popular pets with French royalty in the mid 1700s, and spread to other parts of Europe

by the end of the century. They first appeared in the United States in the early 1900s. They are bred

largely for their long wool, which may be removed by shearing or plucking (gently pulling loose wool).

There are many individual breeds of Angora rabbits, four of which are ARBA recognized. Such breeds

include, French, German, Giant, English, Satin, Chinese, Swiss, Finnish, to name a few.

Red Panda


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The Red Panda, Ailurus fulgens ("shining cat," from a Latinized form of the Greek, ailouros, "cat," and the

participial form of the Latin fulgere, "to shine") is a mostly herbivorous mammal, slightly larger than a

domestic cat (55 cm long). The Red Panda has semi-retractile claws and, like the Giant Panda, has a

"false thumb" which is really an extension of the wrist bone. Thick fur on the soles of the feet offers

protection from cold and hides scent glands. The Red Panda is native to the Himalayas in Nepal and

southern China. The word panda is derived from Nepalese word "ponya" which means bamboo andplants eating animals in Nepal.

Sloth

Sloths are medium-sized mammals that live in Central and South America belonging to the families

Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae, part of the order Pilosa. Most scientists call these two families the

Folivora suborder, while some call it Phyllophaga. Sloths are omnivores. They may eat insects, small

lizards and carrion, but their diet consists mostly of buds, tender shoots, and leaves. Sloths have made

extraordinary adaptations to an arboreal browsing lifestyle. Leaves, their main food source, provide very

little energy or nutrition and do not digest easily: sloths have very large, specialized, slow-acting

stomachs with multiple compartments in which symbiotic bacteria break down the tough leaves. As much

as two-thirds of a well-fed sloth's body-weight consists of the contents of its stomach, and the digestive

process can take as long as a month or more to complete. Even so, leaves provide little energy, and

sloths deal with this by a range of economy measures: they have very low metabolic rates (less than half

of that expected for a creature of their size), and maintain low body temperatures when active (30 to 34

degrees Celsius or 86 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit), and still lower temperatures when resting. Sloths mainly

live in Cecropia trees.


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Emperor Tamarin

The Emperor Tamarin (Saguinus imperator) is a tamarin allegedly named for its similarity with the

German emperor Wilhelm II. The name was first intended as a joke, but has become the official scientific

name. This tamarin lives in the southwest Amazon Basin, in east Peru, north Bolivia and in the west

Brazilian states of Acre and Amazonas. The fur of the Emperor Tamarin is predominantly grey colored,

with yellowish speckles on its chest. The hands and feet are black and the tail is brown. Outstanding is its

long, white mustache, which extends to both sides beyond the shoulders. The animal reaches a length of

24 to 26 cm, plus a 35 cm long tail. It weighs approximately 300 to 400 g. This primate inhabits tropical

rain forests, living deep in the forest and also in open tree-covered areas. It is a diurnal animal, spending

the majority of its days in the trees with quick, safe movements and broad jumps among the limbs.

White-faced Saki Monkey

The White-faced Saki (Pithecia pithecia), also known as the Guianan Saki and the Golden-faced Saki, is

a species of saki monkey, a type of New World monkey, found in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana,

Suriname, and Venezuela. This monkey mostly feed on fruits, but also nuts, seeds, and insects.


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Tapir

Tapirs are large browsing mammals, roughly pig-like in shape, with short, prehensile snouts. They inhabit

jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. All four species of tapir

are classified as endangered or vulnerable. Their closest relatives are the other odd-toed ungulates,

horses and rhinoceroses.Hagfish

Hagfish are marine craniates of the class Myxini, also known as Hyperotreti. Despite their name, there is

some debate about whether they are strictly fish (as there is for lampreys), since they belong to a much

more primitive lineage than any other group that is commonly defined fish (Chondrichthyes and

Osteichthyes) . Their unusual feeding habits and slime-producing capabilities have led members of the

scientific and popular media to dub the hagfish as the most "disgusting" of all sea creatures. Hagfish are

long, vermiform and can exude copious quantities of a sticky slime or mucus (from which the typical

species Myxine glutinosa was named). When captured and held by the tail, they escape by secreting the

fibrous slime, which turns into a thick and sticky gel when combined with water, and then cleaning off by

tying themselves in an overhand knot which works its way from the head to the tail of the animal, scraping

off the slime as it goes. Some authorities conjecture that this singular behavior may assist them in

extricating themselves from the jaws of predatory fish. However, the "sliming" also seems to act as a

distraction to predators, and free-swimming hagfish are seen to "slime" when agitated and will later clear

the mucus off by way of the same travelling-knot behavior.


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Star-nosed Mole

The Star-nosed Mole (Condylura cristata) is a small North American mole found in eastern Canada and

the north-eastern United States. It is the only member of the tribe Condylurini and the genus Condylura.

It lives in wet lowland areas and eats small invertebrates, aquatic insects, worms and molluscs. It is agood swimmer and can forage along the bottoms of streams and ponds. Like other moles, this animal

digs shallow surface tunnels for foraging; often, these tunnels exit underwater. It is active day and night

and remains active in winter, when it has been observed tunnelling through the snow and swimming in

ice-covered streams. Little is known about the social behavior of the species, but it is suspected that it is

colonial. The Star-nosed Mole is covered in thick blackish brown water-repellent fur and has large scaled

feet and a long thick tail, which appears to function as a fat storage reserve for the spring breeding

season. Adults are 15 to 20 cm in length, weigh about 55 g, and have 44 teeth. The mole's most

distinctive feature is a circle of 22 mobile, pink, fleshy tentacles at the end of the snout. These are used to

identify food by touch, such as worms, insects and crustaceans.


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The Axolotl (or ajolote) (Ambystoma mexicanum) is the best-known of the Mexican neotenic mole

salamanders belonging to the Tiger Salamander complex. Larvae of this species fail to undergo

metamorphosis, so the adults remain aquatic and gilled. The species originates from the lake underlying

Mexico City. Axolotls are used extensively in scientific research due to their ability to regenerate most

body parts, ease of breeding, and large embryos. They are commonly kept as pets in the United States,

Great Britain, Australia, Japan (where they are sold under the name Wooper Rooper, and other countries.

Axolotls should not be confused with waterdogs, the larval stage of the closely related Tiger Salamanders

(Ambystoma tigrinum and Ambystoma mavortium), which is widespread in much of North America which

also occasionally become neotenic, nor with mudpuppies (Necturus spp.), fully aquatic salamanders

which are unrelated to the axolotl but which bear a superficial resemblance.

Aye-aye

The Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a strepsirrhine native to Madagascar that combines

rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker. It is the

world's largest nocturnal primate, and is characterized by its unique method of finding food; it taps on

trees to find grubs, then gnaws holes in the wood and inserts its elongated middle finger to pull the grubs


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out. Daubentonia is the only genus in the family Daubentoniidae and infraorder Chiromyiformes. The

Aye-aye is the only extant member of the genus (although it is currently an endangered species); a

second species (Daubentonia robusta) was exterminated over the last few centuries.

Alpaca

The Alpaca (Vicugna pacos) is a domesticated species of South American camelid developed from the

wild alpacas. It resembles a sheep in appearance, but is larger and has a long erect neck as well as

coming in many colors, whereas sheep are generally bred to be white and black. Alpacas are kept in

herds that graze on the level heights of the Andes of Ecuador, southern Peru, northern Bolivia, and

northern Chile at an altitude of 3500 to 5000 meters above sea-level, throughout the year. Alpacas are

considerably smaller than llamas, and unlike them are not used as beasts of burden but are valued only

for their fiber. Alpacas only have fleece fibers, not woolen fibers, used for making knitted and woven itemsmuch as sheeps wool is. These items include blankets, sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves, a wide variety of

textiles and ponchos in South America, and sweaters, socks and coats in other parts of the world. The

fiber comes in more than 52 natural colors as classified in Peru, 12 as classified in Australia and 22 as

classified in America.


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Tarsier

Tarsiers are prosimian primates of the genus Tarsius, a monotypic genus in the family Tarsiidae, which isitself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. The phylogenetic position of extant tarsiers

within the order Primates has been debated for much of the past century, and tarsiers have alternately

been classified with strepsirrhine primates in the suborder Prosimii, or as the sister group to the simians

(=Anthropoidea) in the infraorder Haplorrhini. Analysis of SINE insertions, a type of macromutation to the

DNA, is argued to offer very persuasive evidence for the monophyly of Haplorrhini, where other lines of

evidence, such as DNA sequence data, had remained ambiguous. Thus, some systematists argue that

the debate is conclusively settled in favor of a monophyletic Haplorrhini. Tarsiers have enormous eyes

and long feet. Their feet have extremely elongated tarsus bones, which is how they got their name. They

are primarily insectivorous, and catch insects by jumping at them. They are also known to prey on birds

and snakes. As they jump from tree to tree, tarsiers can catch even birds in motion.[citation needed]

Gestation takes about six months, and tarsiers give birth to single offspring. All tarsier species are

nocturnal in their habits, but like many nocturnal organisms some individuals may show more or less

activity during the daytime. Unlike many nocturnal animals, however, tarsiers lack a light-reflecting area

(tapetum lucidum) of the eye. They also have a fovea, atypical for nocturnal animals.

Dumbo Octopus


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The octopuses of the genus Grimpoteuthis are sometimes nicknamed "Dumbo octopuses" from the ear-

like fins protruding from the top of their "heads" (actually bodies), resembling the ears of Walt Disney's

flying elephant. They are benthic creatures, living at extreme depths, and are some of the rarest of the

Octopoda species.

Frill-necked Lizard

The Frill-necked Lizard, or Frilled Lizard also known as the Frilled Dragon, (Chlamydosaurus kingii) is so

called because of the large ruff of skin which usually lies folded back against its head and neck. The neck

frill is supported by long spines of cartilage, and when the lizard is frightened, it gapes its mouth showing

a bright pink or yellow lining, and the frill flares out, displaying bright orange and red scales. The frill may

also aid in thermoregulation. They may grow up to one metre in total length. They often walk

quadrupedally when on the ground. When frightened they begin to run on all-fours and then accelerate

onto the hind-legs. In Australia, the frill-necked lizard is also known as the "bicycle lizard" because of this

behaviour. Males are significantly larger than females both as juveniles and when mature. The frill of the

Australian frilled dragon is used to frighten off potential predators as well as hissing and lunging. If this

fails to ward off the threat, the lizard flees bipedally to a nearby tree where it climbs to the top and relies

on camouflage to keep it hidden.

Narwhal

The Narwhal (Monodon monoceros) is an Arctic species of cetacean. It is a creature rarely found south of

latitude 70N. It is one of two species of white whale in the Monodontidae family (the other is the beluga


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whale). It is possibly also related to the Irrawaddy dolphin. The English name narwhal is derived from the

Dutch name narwal which in turn comes from the Danish narhval which is based on the Old Norse word

nar, meaning "corpse." This is a reference to the animal's colour. The narwhal is also commonly known

as the Moon Whale. In some parts of the world, the Narwhal is colloquially referred to as a "reamfish."

Sucker-footed Bat

The Madagascar Sucker-footed Bat, Old World Sucker-footed Bat, or Sucker-footed Bat (Myzopoda

aurita and Myzopoda schliemanni) is a species of bat in the Myzopodidae family. It is monotypic within

the genus Myzopoda. It is endemic to Madagascar. It is threatened by habitat loss.

Pygmy Marmoset


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The Pygmy Marmoset (Callithrix (Cebuella) pygmaea) is a monkey native to the rainforest canopies of

western Brazil, southeastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, and eastern Peru. It is one of the smallest

primates, with its body length ranging from 14-16 cm (excluding the 15-20 cm tail) and the smallest

monkey. Males weigh around 140 g (5 ounces), and females only 120 g ( 4.2 ounces). TDespite its name,

the Pygmy Marmoset is somewhat different from the typical marmosets classified in genus Callithrix. As

such, it is accorded its own subgenus, which was formerly recognized as its own genus, Cebuella.TThe Pygmy Marmoset has a tawny coat, and a ringed tail that can be as long as its body. Their claws

are specially adapted for climbing trees, a trait unique to the species. They are omnivorous, feeding on

fruit, leaves, insects, and sometimes even small reptiles. Much of their diet, however, comes from tapping

trees for sap. Up to two-thirds of their time is spent gouging tree bark to reach the gummy sap. The

Pygmy Marmoset has specialized incisors for gouging holes in bark. Unfortunately, because of its small

size, and its swift movements, it is very hard to observe in the wild. TIn captivity, the Pygmy Marmoset

can live up to 11 years.

Blobfish

The blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is a fish that inhabits the deep waters off the coasts of Australia and

Tasmania. Due to the inaccessibility of its habitat, it is rarely seen by humans. Blobfish are found at

depths where the pressure is several dozens of times higher than at sea level, which would likely make

gas bladders inefficient. To remain buoyant, the flesh of the blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass with a

density slightly less than water; this allows the fish to float above the sea floor without expending energy

on swimming. The relative lack of muscle is not a disadvantage as it primarily swallows edible matter that

floats by in front it.

Platypus


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The Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a semi-aquatic mammal endemic to eastern Australia,

including Tasmania. Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of

monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. It is the sole living

representative of its family (Ornithorhynchidae) and genus (Ornithorhynchus) , though a number of

related species have been found in the fossil record. The bizarre appearance of this egg-laying, duck-

billed mammal baffled naturalists when it was first discovered, with some considering it an elaboratefraud. It is one of the few venomous mammals; the male Platypus has a spur on the hind foot which

delivers a poison capable of causing severe pain to humans. The unique features of the Platypus make it

an important subject in the study of evolutionary biology and a recognizable and iconic symbol of

Australia; it has appeared as a mascot at national events and is featured on the reverse of the Australian

20 cent coin. Until the early 20th century it was hunted for its fur, but it is now protected throughout its

range. Although captive breeding programs have had only limited success and the Platypus is vulnerable

to the effects of pollution, it is not under any immediate threat.

Shoebill

The Shoebill, Balaeniceps rex also known as Whalehead is a very large bird related to the storks. It

derives its name from its massive shoe-shaped bill. The Shoebill is a very large bird, averaging 1.2 m (4

ft) tall, 5.6 kg (12.3 lbs) and 2.33 m (7.7 ft) across the wings. The adult is mainly grey, the juveniles are

browner. It lives in tropical east Africa, in large swamps from Sudan to Zambia. The Shoebill was added

rather recently to the ornithological lists; the species was only discovered in the 19th century when some

skins were brought to Europe. It was not until years later that live specimens reached the scientific

community. The bird was known to both ancient Egyptians and Arabs however. There exist Egyptianimages depicting the Shoebill while the Arabs referred to the bird as abu markub, which means one with a

shoe. Clearly, this refers to the striking bill.


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Yeti Crab

Kiwa hirsuta is a crustacean discovered in 2005 in the South Pacific Ocean. This decapod, which is

approximately 15 cm (6 inches) long, is notable for the quantity of silky blond setae (resembling fur)

covering its pereiopods (thoracic legs, including claws). Its discoverers dubbed it the "yeti lobster" or "yeti

crab"[2]. K. hirsuta was discovered in March 2005 by a group organised by Robert Vrijenhoek of the

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Monterey, California, using the submarine DSV Alvin,

operating from RV Atlantis[3]. The discovery was announced on the 7th of March, 2006. It was found

1,500 km (900 miles) south of Easter Island in the South Pacific, at a depth of 2,200 m (7,200 feet), living

on hydrothermal vents along the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge[4]. Based on both morphology and molecular

data, the species was deemed to form a new genus and family (Kiwaidae). The animal has strongly

reduced eyes that lack pigment, and is thought to be blind. The 'hairy' pincers contain filamentous

bacteria, which the creature may use to detoxify poisonous minerals from the water emitted by the

hydrothermal vents where it lives. Alternatively, it may feed on the bacteria, although it is thought to be a

general carnivore. Its diet also consists of green algae and small shrimp.

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World's Most Interesting Animals