Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,636 · Stories: 19,540

• Lowland tapir Tapirus terrestris

  

  The lowland tapir lives in South American forests and wetlands, preferring sites near water where it swims well.

• Common Cuttlefish Sepia officinalis

  The common cuttlefish has a broad oval body with fins along its sides. It lives in shallow seas and offshore waters, with records from the North Sea region to southeastern Africa.

• Choirboys Pycnoclavella narcissus

  A colonial sea squirt described from Algoa Bay, South Africa, with swollen tips on branching stalks.

• European robin Erithacus rubecula

  A small bird seen in British gardens and parks. Adults have reddish breasts, and males and females look alike.

• Elkhorn coral Acropora palmata

  These branching structures belong to an animal, not a plant. Elkhorn coral grows in shallow Caribbean waters; thickets shelter fish and other creatures.

• Tri-spine horseshoe crab Tachypleus tridentatus

  A coastal animal of East and Southeast Asia with a hard shell and long tail. It lays eggs on sandy shores, and young animals grow on tidal flats.

• African wild ass Equus africanus

  A wild ass of Northeast Africa. This entry treats it as a wild species, separate from the domestic donkey.

• Hermann's Tortoise Testudo hermanni

  Hermann’s tortoise is a terrestrial turtle found in southern Europe. Its rounded carapace is domed and can range from yellow, olive, or orange to dark brown.

• Plotocnide borealis

  This animal has a swimming medusa and a minute mud-dwelling polyp. DNA research connected forms that had been treated as separate species.

• Short-eared owl Asio flammeus

  An owl with yellow eyes and mottled brown plumage, seen hunting over grasslands and wetlands in Britain.

• Roman Snail Helix pomatia

  Helix pomatia has a large rounded shell, cream-colored with faint brown bands. Its native range is in central and southeastern Europe, and it lives in woods, hedgerows, and tall vegetation.

• Manuel's Cellar Spider Pholcus manueli

  Recorded widely in Asia and the United States, females of this spider have slightly more closely spaced eye groups than males.

• Asian elephant Elephas maximus

  An Asian elephant lives in South and Southeast Asia. It uses its trunk to grasp food and pour water into its mouth.

• Wood's Slit-faced Bat Nycteris woodi

  Wood's slit-faced bat is a small bat of southern African woodland savannas. Its fur ranges from gray to reddish brown, and it roosts by day in places such as hollow trees and caves.

• Common Midwife Toad Alytes obstetricans

  This frog carries eggs wrapped around the male’s hind legs.

• Eurasian jay Garrulus glandarius

  A woodland bird with a conspicuous white rump in flight. In Britain it is found widely except in northern Scotland.

• Thrush Nightingale Luscinia luscinia

  This bird has a grey-brown back and a paler belly. It is active at dusk and at night, singing loudly from waterside thickets.

• Common earthworm Lumbricus terrestris

  An earthworm that makes deep burrows, feeding on leaf litter at the surface and sometimes pulling it underground. It connects life above and below the soil.

• West Indian manatee Trichechus manatus

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

• Venus flytrap sea anemone Actinoscyphia aurelia

  A deep-sea anemone observed on sandy and muddy seafloors during a Gulf of Alaska survey.

• Carolina Anole Anolis carolinensis

  Males of this lizard can extend skin under the throat.

• Eurasian coot Fulica atra

  A swimming waterbird of lakes and ponds with a conspicuous white forehead.

• Zora silvestris

  A small spider with dark bands on the front part of its body, recorded from Europe, the Caucasus and Turkmenistan.

• Sundevall's Leaf-nosed Bat Hipposideros caffer

  This bat has short, rounded wings, a large noseleaf, gray to gray-brown dorsal fur and a paler underside. It is recorded in southern African wooded savanna and riverine forest and feeds mainly on moths.