Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,768 · Stories: 19,540

• Square-tailed Nightjar Caprimulgus fossii

  

  The Square-tailed Nightjar is active at night in open woodland, savanna and scrub south of the Sahara. It catches flying beetles, grasshoppers and moths and lays its eggs in a shallow depression on the ground.

• Verreaux's Sifaka Propithecus verreauxi

  Verreaux's sifaka is a day-active lemur of forests in western and southwestern Madagascar. It is known for clinging upright to tree trunks and leaping between branches.

• Great frigatebird Fregata minor

  A tropical seabird with long wings and a deeply forked tail.

• Laos Langur Trachypithecus laotum

  The Laos langur lives in limestone forest in central Laos. At the study site, young animals showed varied coat colors, and groups were observed eating young leaves.

• Japanese waxwing Bombycilla japonica

  A winter visitor to Japan with a red tail tip.

• Indian Long-eared Hedgehog Hemiechinus collaris

  This hedgehog has large ears, a pointed muzzle, and short spines. It is nocturnal and digs burrows.

• Scarlet-horned Manakin Ceratopipra cornuta

  A manakin of humid forests in northern South America. Males and females differ in head plumage, and males display in small groups.

• Kloss's Gibbon Hylobates klossii

  Kloss's gibbon has black fur and long arms. It lives in the canopy of the Mentawai Islands west of Sumatra.

• North Island Kokako Callaeas wilsoni

  The North Island Kokako is endemic to New Zealand's North Island, where it lives in native forest. It has blue-gray plumage and blue wattles, and feeds in trees on fruit, leaves, and insects.

• Bushpig Potamochoerus larvatus

  A wild pig that forages in groups in forests and wetlands of eastern and southern Africa.

• Lesser Green Leafbird Chloropsis cyanopogon

  The Lesser Green Leafbird blends with foliage, while the male has a black face and blue throat. It searches for food in the canopy of Southeast Asian lowland forest.

• Painted Ring-tailed Possum Pseudochirulus forbesi

  Animals studied on Mt Dayman were described as having striking facial and head markings and a dark line down the back.

• Black-billed Wood Hoopoe Phoeniculus somaliensis

  This bird has glossy, blackish plumage and searches tree bark for arthropods. It occurs in eastern Africa in woodland, bushland and tree-lined places near water.

• Ruidoso Pocket Gopher Megascapheus ruidosae

  This pocket gopher was described from Ruidoso, New Mexico. The original description records dark brown to nearly black fur above, ochre-brown sides and underside, and white feet and tail tip.

• Black crowned crane Balearica pavonina

  A crane with a golden crown of stiff feathers. Adults have a dark body and red and white cheek patches.

• Northern Three-toed Jerboa Dipus sagitta

  The northern three-toed jerboa changes coat color with the seasons. It lives in dry grasslands and deserts and mainly eats plants and seeds.

• Red-tailed Tropicbird Phaethon rubricauda

  A white seabird with a red bill and long red tail streamers, it breeds on tropical and subtropical islands.

• Black-capped Fruit Bat Chironax melanocephalus

  This small bat has a dark head and yellow-to-orange hair on the sides of the neck and shoulders. It is recorded in forests of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java and Borneo and feeds mainly on fruit.

• Little Yellow Flycatcher Erythrocercus holochlorus

  This small bird lives in coastal East African woodland, moving through the trees and often feeding in mixed-species flocks.

• Ferreira’s Spiny Tree-rat Mesomys hispidus

  This arboreal rodent has stiff spines on its back and a long tail ending in a tuft. It is reported throughout the Amazon Basin and was commonly captured in mature forest in a Peruvian study.

• Usambara Hyliota Hyliota usambara

  The Usambara Hyliota has a blue-black back and a white wing patch. A 1999 survey recorded it singly or in pairs, usually in the canopy of mature trees at forest edges in Tanzania’s East Usambaras. That paper used the older subspecies name Hyliota (australis) usambarae and said its status as a separate species was unresolved at the time.

• Borneo Short-tailed Porcupine Hystrix (Thecurus) crassispinis

  This porcupine lives in forests and cultivated areas on Borneo. Its dark brown quills, with pale tips and bases, help identify it.

• White-cheeked starling Spodiopsar cineraceus

  A bird of settlements and towns with trees in East Asia. In Japan, flocks gather at shared roosts after breeding.

• Garlepp's Pampas Cat Leopardus garleppi

  A wild cat recorded in Peru’s Eten wetlands. It has reddish fur with spots; in 2019, an individual was filmed crossing a path and moving into tall vegetation.