Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,025 · Stories: 19,293

• Sand Martin Riparia riparia

  

  A small martin with a grey-brown back, pale underside, and dark chest band. In Britain it arrives from Africa in spring to breed, digging nest burrows in sandy banks near water.

• Appalachian Cottontail Sylvilagus obscurus

  

  This small cottontail lives in forests and brushy cover at higher elevations in the Appalachian Mountains.

• Thick-billed Weaver Amblyospiza albifrons

  

  A large weaver with a massive bill, it breeds near wetlands or rank growth and gathers in flocks at other times of year.

• West Indian manatee Trichechus manatus

  

  A large aquatic mammal that eats plants, with a rounded body and broad tail.

• Northern White-cheeked Crested Gibbon Nomascus leucogenys

  

  The northern white-cheeked gibbon is a tailless Southeast Asian ape that moves from branch to branch using its long arms.

• Black-breasted Buttonquail Turnix melanogaster

  

  The Black-breasted Buttonquail is a ground bird with white spots across its black breast. It forages through forest floors where a deep, moist layer of leaf litter is available.

• Eurasian wren Troglodytes troglodytes

  A tiny brown bird with a loud, extended song. In Japan it breeds in habitats such as woodland beside mountain streams.

• African forest elephant Loxodonta cyclotis

  The African forest elephant lives in dense tropical forests of western and central Africa.

• Green Hylia Hylia prasina

  This small bird has separate populations in western and eastern Africa and lives in forest. Its dark olive upperparts and pale-yellow eyebrow are distinctive; it eats insects.

• Gray seal Halichoerus grypus

  A seal of North Atlantic coasts, with a long, prominent nose especially noticeable in adult males.

• Wolffsohn's Mountain Viscacha Lagidium wolffsohni

  Wolffsohn's mountain viscacha lives among rocky slopes in southwestern Argentina. It shelters in crevices and feeds on plants during the day.

• Tiger Shrike Lanius tigrinus

  The male Tiger Shrike has a gray head, a black facial mask, and a reddish-brown, barred back. Most individuals migrate seasonally.

• Little grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis

  A small waterbird of lakes, ponds and slow rivers. It dives for fish and other prey and raises young on nests that appear to float.

• Aye-aye Daubentonia madagascariensis

  A nocturnal lemur of Madagascan forests. Its long thin middle finger helps it locate insects inside wood.

• Tasmanian Thornbill Acanthiza ewingii

  The Tasmanian Thornbill is a small brown bird found on Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands. Its white undertail helps distinguish it from a similar thornbill.

• Siberian Flying Squirrel Pteromys volans

  A small squirrel of southern and central Finland that glides between trees on a membrane joining its front and hind legs.

• Pygmy hippopotamus Choeropsis liberiensis

  The pygmy hippopotamus is a small forest hippo from West Africa that usually lives alone.

• Black-hooded Laughingthrush Garrulax milleti

  The Black-hooded Laughingthrush is a large laughingthrush of the Vietnamese and Lao highlands. Dark plumage extends from the head to the breast.

• Eurasian Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis

  A small finch with a red face and yellow wing patches. It eats seeds and also visits gardens and parks in Britain.

• Spix's Night Monkey Aotus vociferans

  Spix's night monkey is active at night. A feeding study in Peruvian river basins found fruit to be its main recorded food, with flowers and nectar also used.

• Eastern Nicator Nicator gularis

  The Eastern Nicator lives in lowland forest and woodland from eastern to southern Africa. The tip of its upper bill is hooked, and it builds a low nest in a branch.

• Sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus

  A whale with a large head and narrow lower jaw that dives into deep water to find food.

• Mantled Howler Alouatta palliata

  The mantled howler is a monkey with black fur and, in most individuals, long yellow or brown hairs hanging along the flanks. It feeds on leaves, fruit, and flowers in the forest canopy.

• Stitchbird Notiomystis cincta

  This forest bird is endemic to New Zealand. Its naturally surviving population is on Little Barrier Island; managed populations have been translocated elsewhere.