Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,825 · Stories: 19,540

• Lowland Streaked Tenrec Hemicentetes semispinosus

  

  The lowland streaked tenrec is a small mammal with striking yellow-and-black quills and stripes. It lives in eastern Madagascar’s lowland rainforests.

• Common Loon Gavia immer

  A large waterbird that chases fish underwater and changes its plumage noticeably between summer and winter.

• Smoky Pocket Gopher Cratogeomys fumosus

  The smoky pocket gopher is a burrowing rodent of the southern Mexican Plateau, where volcanic soils occur. Its large foreclaws help it dig underground.

• American White Pelican Pelecanus erythrorhynchos

  The American White Pelican is a North American pelican with broad black-and-white wings and a huge bill. It scoops fish in shallow water, sometimes herding fish with other pelicans.

• Anosi Mouse Lemur Microcebus tanosi

  This small lemur is recorded in the Anosy region of southeastern Madagascar. Its back is dark brown and its head is reddish. Night transects at Sainte Luce from 2011 to 2018 recorded it in all four study fragments in littoral forest.

• Water Dikkop Burhinus vermiculatus

  The Water Thick-knee is a large shorebird that is active at night along rivers and lakes. Its mottled gray-brown plumage helps it blend into grass and waterside cover.

• Antafia Sportive Lemur Lepilemur aeeclis

  Lepilemur aeeclis occurs in northwestern Madagascar. A forest survey in the Antrema protected area reported this mainly leaf-eating lemur more often in closed-canopy forest and less often in shrub, dune, and wooded agricultural sites.

• Gray-breasted Seedsnipe Thinocorus orbignyianus

  The Gray-breasted Seedsnipe lives on the ground in the high Andes. Males are gray, while females have mottled brown plumage.

• Black-headed Night Monkey Aotus nigriceps

  The black-headed night monkey is a small monkey of Amazonian forest, active mainly at night. Its large eyes and the black line running between them are distinctive.

• Purple Heron Ardea purpurea

  A heron with a buff head and neck, black cap, gray back, and deep chestnut shoulder patch. It favors dense plants beside shallow water.

• Swift Fox Vulpes velox

  A small fox of the North American grasslands, marked by black patches beside the muzzle and a black tail tip.

• White-necked Puffbird Notharchus hyperrhynchus

  The White-necked Puffbird occurs in Costa Rican tropical forest, including edges and clearings. It has a short rounded body and a thick, straight bill; its black cap and breast band stand out against white markings. It waits quietly on a perch before taking insects or small lizards.

• Small-eared Colilargo Oligoryzomys microtis

  This small rodent occurs in the Amazon Basin. Its upper fur is yellowish brown with fine black tips, its underside is white, and it is described as terrestrial in lowland rainforest edge habitat.

• Black Vulture Coragyps atratus

  A black New World vulture found from North to South America. It feeds on carrion and may share food with relatives.

• Gray Mouse Opossum Tlacuatzin canescens

  This small opossum lives in Mexico. It is nocturnal and eats mainly insects, along with fruit and small animals.

• Blue-bellied Roller Coracias cyanogaster

  This roller occurs in western and central Africa. Its pale-blue belly and vivid blue tail stand out, and it dives from trees to the ground to catch prey.

• Decken's Sifaka Propithecus deckenii

  Decken's Sifaka is a lemur of northwestern Madagascar's dry deciduous forests and limestone tsingy. Its ivory fur contrasts with dark skin.

• Grosbeak Starling Scissirostrum dubium

  This starling is endemic to Sulawesi, Indonesia. It lives mostly in tropical lowlands and lightly wooded forest and excavates nest cavities in rotting or dying trunks.

• Juan Fernández Fur Seal Arctocephalus philippii

  The Juan Fernández fur seal lives on islands off Chile. It eats squid and fish and uses steep, rocky shores for resting and breeding.

• Eyrean Grasswren Amytornis goyderi

  This grasswren occurs in Australia's inland dune country. A 2021–2022 study reported records outside its previously known range and persistence at sites without Sandhill Canegrass.

• Narrow-skulled Pocket Mouse Chaetodipus artus

  This pocket mouse is smaller than the Sonoran pocket mouse. Its rump spines vary, and the paper's records are from Sonora and Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico.

• Madagascar Magpie-Robin Copsychus albospecularis

  This small bird occurs widely across Madagascar, and its plumage varies by sex and subspecies. It searches for insects near the forest floor.

• Karoo Round-eared Sengi Macroscelides proboscideus

  A small sengi with a long nose and large eyes that lives on gravel plains in the Karoo region.

• American robin Turdus migratorius

  A North American thrush found in parks, lawns and forests. It searches the ground for earthworms and often eats fruit in autumn and winter.