Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,636 · Stories: 19,540

• Southern Giant Pouched Rat Cricetomys ansorgei

  

  The Southern Giant Pouched Rat is a large rodent that carries food in its cheek pouches. It often lives alone in a burrow and may store food there.

• Rwenzori Hill Babbler Sylvia atriceps

  

  This babbler lives in central African mountain forests. It was formerly included with the African Hill Babbler but is now treated as a separate species.

• Dusky Pademelon Thylogale brunii

  

  This is a small member of the kangaroo family, with large ears, strong hind legs, and a short, thick tail. It is mainly active at night and eats plants such as grasses and young shoots.

• Forest Bittern Zonerodius heliosylus

  

  The Forest Bittern is a forest heron with a black crown and brown-and-buff barring. It forages alone along streams in New Guinea's rainforests.

• Chestnut Long-tongued Bat Lionycteris spurrelli

  

  The chestnut long-tongued bat is a small bat with chestnut to dark brown fur on its back. It roosts in caves and feeds mainly on nectar.

• Dusky-brown Oriole Oriolus phaeochromus

  

  The Dusky-brown Oriole, also called the Halmahera Oriole, is a uniformly brown oriole from the North Moluccas. It uses upper forest and edges and gives a fluty call.

• Star-nosed Mole Condylura cristata

  A mole of eastern North American wetlands and watersides that searches for prey with its star-shaped nose.

• Fischer's Turaco Tauraco fischeri

  A turaco whose red feather pigment contains copper. It moves through forest and thicket using feet adapted for gripping branches, and often eats fruit.

• Peters's Fruit Bat Cynopterus luzoniensis

  Peters's fruit bat is a small fruit-eating bat. Its ears have pale edging along the front, and it is reported from the Philippines and Sulawesi.

• Desert Eagle Owl Bubo ascalaphus

  This large owl lives among rocks in dry country and searches for prey at night.

• Green Ring-tailed Possum Pseudochirops archeri

  The green ringtail possum has a lime-green-looking coat and a thick tail. It lives in trees in northeastern Queensland and mainly eats leaves.

• Blue Crane Grus paradisea

  This crane lives in southern African grasslands. Its bluish-grey body and long trailing display feathers stand out.

• South American fur seal Arctocephalus australis

  A fur seal of South American waters that spends much of its time at sea and gathers on rocky shores to breed.

• Blue-moustached Bee-eater Merops mentalis

  This bee-eater lives in forests of West and Central Africa. It uses forest interiors, edges, and treefall gaps.

• Tucuxi Sotalia fluviatilis

  The tucuxi is a freshwater dolphin of the Amazon basin, separate from the marine Guiana dolphin.

• Solitary Tinamou Tinamus solitarius

  It walks quietly on the ground in the Atlantic Forest, with gray-brown barring and a pale stripe on the side of the neck. It is secretive, so its whistled song can help reveal its presence.

• Burmese Hare Lepus peguensis

  This hare uses open woodland and grassy scrub, feeding on the ground from dusk into the night.

• Rusty-flanked Treecreeper Certhia nipalensis

  The Rusty-flanked Treecreeper is a small bird of high forests from the eastern Himalayas into southwestern China. It is recorded in mixed conifer and broadleaf forest with tall trees.

• Afghan Pika Ochotona (Conothoa) rufescens

  The Afghan pika is a mountain pika with a cream collar edged in russet during summer. It gathers plants, dries them, and stores them in burrows.

• Black Skimmer Rynchops niger

  The Black Skimmer is a waterbird of American coasts, estuaries, and lagoons. It catches small fish by flying just above the water with its longer lower bill cutting the surface.

• Lesser horseshoe bat Rhinolophus hipposideros

  A small bat with a horseshoe-shaped fold of skin around its nose. In Ireland, records are concentrated in six western counties.

• Spectacled Spiderhunter Arachnothera flavigaster

  The Spectacled Spiderhunter is a large member of the sunbird family that uses forests and plantations in tropical Asia. It feeds on nectar, spiders, and insects.

• American mink Neogale vison

  A North American mustelid that makes use of waterside habitats.

• Eurasian Penduline Tit Remiz pendulinus

  A small bird that weaves a pouch-shaped nest on branches near water. It ranges across Europe and Asia and forages among reeds and wetland plants.