Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,813 · Stories: 19,540

• Cuvier's Beaked Whale Ziphius cavirostris

  

  A whale found in many of the world’s oceans that searches for prey in deep water.

• Rough-skinned Sea Anemone Actinostola callosa

  A seafloor anemone. A study off eastern Canada found a diverse range of small food items in its digestive cavity.

• Eastern Glass Lizard Ophisaurus ventralis

  This lizard sometimes basks and shelters around alligator nests.

• Common Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs

  A familiar finch in Britain and Ireland. It searches the ground for seeds and insects, and shows white on its wings in flight.

• 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.

• 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.

• Raccoon Procyon lotor

  Native to North and Central America, it has a black mask around the eyes and rings along its tail.

• Squirrel Glider Petaurus norfolcensis

  The squirrel glider is a marsupial of eastern Australian forests. It travels between trees using its gliding membrane and is active at night.

• 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.

• Peregrine falcon Falco peregrinus

  A falcon that catches birds in flight. In North America it is common around coasts and cliffs and may nest on tall buildings.

• Crested Jayshrike Platylophus galericulatus

  This bird has a black-and-white body and a long crest that curves forward. It occurs in Southeast Asian forests, often in pairs or small family groups.

• 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.

• Nutria Myocastor coypus

  A large, rat-like animal from South America that lives by water. It was brought to Japan for fur and has established in several prefectures.

• Choirboys Pycnoclavella narcissus

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

• 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.

• Eurasian sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus

  A pigeon-sized hawk with a conspicuous pale eyebrow marking.

• 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.

• Common Midwife Toad Alytes obstetricans

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

• 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.

• Venus flytrap sea anemone Actinoscyphia aurelia

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

• Loggerhead Turtle Caretta caretta

  A genome study reported about 2.13 billion base pairs in the loggerhead sea turtle assembly.

• Eurasian spoonbill Platalea leucorodia

  A white waterbird with long legs and a spoon-shaped bill.

• Mountain Pygmy Possum Burramys parvus

  The mountain pygmy possum is a small mammal adapted to Australia's alpine zone. It is known to store food and hibernate for long periods.

• Western Crested Berrypecker Paramythia olivacea

  The PTFI Mimika guide uses the older combined name Paramythia (montium) olivacea. In its 2023 taxonomy, eBird separates Western and Eastern Crested Berrypeckers and places the western species in central New Guinea’s mountains. The guide’s plumage and habitat notes are local to Mimika.