Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,673 · Stories: 19,540

• Greater Striped Swallow Cecropis cucullata

  

  The Greater Striped Swallow stands out for its rufous forehead and rump and deeply forked tail. It breeds mainly in southern Africa, builds mud nests, and catches insects in flight.

• Bolivian squirrel monkey Saimiri boliviensis

  A small monkey of forests in Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. It searches branches for insects and fruit.

• Gray Thrasher Toxostoma cinereum

  This large thrasher is endemic to Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula. Its long tail and spotted breast stand out, and it forages mainly on the ground in cactus desert.

• Yucatan Small-eared Shrew Cryptotis mayensis

  The Yucatan small-eared shrew has short gray fur and tiny eyes. It occurs in lowland areas around the Yucatan Peninsula and searches for small prey at night.

• Scarlet-tufted Sunbird Nectarinia johnstoni

  A sunbird of East Africa’s high mountains, it feeds on Lobelia nectar in Kenya’s alpine moorlands. Males have iridescent green plumage and scarlet pectoral tufts.

• Arrow Flying Squirrel Hylopetes sagitta

  This flying squirrel is reported from Java and Bangka. At Mount Ungaran in Central Java, a paper documented nighttime activity in October 2024; the three animals observed were mainly in trees.

• Bay-crowned Brush Finch Atlapetes seebohmi

  The Bay-crowned Brush Finch occurs along the western Andes of southern Ecuador and north-western Peru. Its grey plumage is marked by a rufous crown and pale throat; it forages in montane scrub, dwarf forest, and forest edges.

• Gray-headed Lemur Eulemur cinereiceps

  This lemur lives in forests of southeastern Madagascar. Males and females differ in coat color, and groups forage in trees for fruit and other foods.

• Blue-winged Leafbird Chloropsis cochinchinensis

  In the Chinese subspecies C. c. kinneari, males have blue wings and a black throat, while females have a blue-green throat.

• Thick-tailed Three-toed Jerboa Stylodipus telum

  This jerboa occurs in a broken belt of dry country from the lower Dnieper to Lake Zaysan.

• Pink-backed pelican Pelecanus rufescens

  An African wetland pelican whose pale back can take on a pink tint.

• Red slender loris Loris tardigradus

  The red slender loris is a small primate endemic to Sri Lanka. A 2017 study places the species across the island's wet zone and montane areas.

• Yellow-billed Stork Mycteria ibis

  A stork with a red face and long yellow bill that forages in shallow African wetlands.

• Common Pericote Graomys griseoflavus

  The common pericote is a mouse broadly distributed in dry parts of Argentina. It has a gray-yellow back, pale underside, and a long tail ending in a brush-like tuft.

• Cocoa Woodcreeper Xiphorhynchus susurrans

  This woodcreeper occurs in Central and South America, where it uses humid forests. It searches trunks for ants, spiders, and other small arthropods.

• Barasingha Rucervus duvaucelii

  Barasingha deer live in wetlands and floodplains of northern and central India and southwestern Nepal. Males grow branched antlers, and herd patterns change with the season.

• Stark's Lark Spizocorys starki

  This small lark inhabits dry country and is nomadic, moving after rain. Outside the breeding season it may gather in large flocks.

• African Golden Cat Caracal aurata

  A medium-sized wild cat of the moist forests of equatorial Africa.

• Tyrian Metaltail Metallura tyrianthina

  A 19th-century account describes this hummingbird in the mountains of New Granada and Ecuador and reports that it visits flowers. The plumage and behavior below come from that historical account.

• Crabeater Seal Lobodon carcinophaga

  This seal is widespread in pack ice around Antarctica. It feeds mainly on krill; despite its name, crabs are not its principal food.

• Lesser Whitethroat Curruca curruca

  A small warbler with dark cheeks contrasting with a pale throat. Wild birds in the UK mainly eat insects in spring and summer, then berries in autumn.

• Robust Tuco-tuco Ctenomys tuconax

  The robust tuco-tuco lives in highland grassland in Tucumán Province, northwestern Argentina. It digs underground tunnels and feeds mainly on grasses.

• Philippine Trogon Harpactes ardens

  This trogon is endemic to the Philippines. The male has red underparts, while the female has orange-brown underparts; it lives in moist lowland and montane forest.

• Meerkat Suricata suricatta

  A meerkat is a mongoose relative from dry parts of southern Africa. It uses burrows and lives in groups.