Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,825 · Stories: 19,540

• Mentawai Three-striped Squirrel Lariscus obscurus

  

  The Mentawai three-striped squirrel is restricted to the Mentawai Islands west of Sumatra. Its dark back has faint stripes, and it eats seeds, fallen fruit, and arthropods.

• Sennar Penduline Tit Anthoscopus punctifrons

  The Sennar Penduline Tit is a tiny bird with an olive-grey back and a black-speckled forehead. It forages in small parties in acacia canopies across semi-desert parts of the Sahel.

• Gray Bat Myotis (Pizonyx) grisescens

  The gray bat inhabits limestone regions of the Midwestern and southeastern United States. It uses caves as seasonal roosts and catches insects over water.

• White-winged Lark Alauda leucoptera

  The White-winged Lark is a lark whose white wing patches stand out in flight. It uses dry steppe and fields, and may gather in flocks outside the breeding season.

• Northern Pudu Pudu mephistophiles

  This very small deer lives in the northern Andes. It has a dark brown face, lives alone, and is found in high-altitude páramo near humid montane forest.

• Fiery-billed Aracari Pteroglossus frantzii

  The Fiery-billed Aracari is a Central American bird with a large orange-and-black bill. It moves through forests in groups and feeds mainly on fruit.

• Heermann's Kangaroo Rat Dipodomys heermanni

  Heermann's kangaroo rat hops on long hind legs and carries seeds in cheek pouches to its burrow. It is active alone at night.

• California Gnatcatcher Polioptila californica

  This small gray bird often moves its long, narrow black tail. It lives in scrubby dry habitats from southern California to Baja California, Mexico.

• Elegant Fat-tailed Mouse Opossum Thylamys elegans

  Its tail stores fat and changes in thickness by season with food availability. The coat is tricolored: darker on the back, paler on the sides, and cream-colored underneath.

• Slaty-breasted Tinamou Crypturellus boucardi

  The Slaty-breasted Tinamou searches for fruits, seeds, and ants on the floor of wet forest. Its breast is dark gray, its throat is white, and females have bars on their wings.

• White-browed Titi Monkey Plecturocebus discolor

  This white-browed titi is reported from southern Colombia through Ecuador to Peru. It has a white band across the forehead.

• Woodchat Shrike Lanius senator

  The male Woodchat Shrike has a reddish-orange head and striking black-and-white markings. During breeding it hunts insects in open, sparsely wooded places, then winters in Africa.

• Hairy-legged Vampire Bat Diphylla ecaudata

  A tailless, dark brown bat that mainly lives in forests. It roosts in caves and other shelters and is known for feeding on bird blood.

• Gray-headed Kingfisher Halcyon leucocephala

  The Grey-headed Kingfisher is a migratory kingfisher that hunts insects in woodland south of the Sahara, diving to the ground from a perch.

• Short-eared Dog Atelocynus microtis

  The short-eared dog is a wild canid of the Amazon lowlands, where fish is a common food.

• Australian Pratincole Stiltia isabella

  The Australian Pratincole uses dry, open grasslands and other bare-ground habitats, and some populations move seasonally.

• Asian Badger Meles leucurus

  The Asian badger ranges from eastern Europe to eastern Asia and is well adapted for digging. It has a white face with dark stripes over the eyes, and its coat color varies by region.

• Wattled crane Grus carunculata

  An African crane with feathered wattles hanging beneath its chin.

• Tantalus Monkey Chlorocebus tantalus

  Tantalus monkeys forage along forest edges and in grassland, and can disperse seeds from fruit they eat. A study site in Nigeria yielded seeds that remained intact in their faeces.

• Buff-banded Rail Hypotaenidia philippensis

  The Buff-banded Rail is marked by a chestnut-buff breast band and black-and-white barring. In Australia it keeps to cover around wetlands and crops while probing for food in mud.

• Tibetan gazelle Procapra picticaudata

  A small gazelle of the high Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, it has a slender body and long legs. It is usually seen alone or in small herds.

• White-backed Night Heron Calherodius leuconotus

  The White-backed Night Heron has a white eye-ring and pale back plumes. It searches for food along riverbanks and shallows at night.

• Mauritian Tomb Bat Taphozous (Taphozous) mauritianus

  Its underside is white and its back is mixed gray. It occurs in central and southern Africa and nearby islands, and flies out after dark.

• Nicobar Megapode Megapodius nicobariensis

  The Nicobar Megapode is a ground-dwelling bird of the Nicobar Islands. It makes large mounds of leaves and sand, using the heat of decomposition to incubate its eggs.