Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,676 · Stories: 19,540

• Bowhead whale Balaena mysticetus

  

  A whale with a large head and a white chin, living in icy northern seas.

• Purplish Jacamar Galbula chalcothorax

  This jacamar lives in forests of western Amazonia. It has a blackish-green crown and head sides, with reddish upperparts and tail.

• Mexican Giant Shrew Megasorex gigas

  The Mexican giant shrew is known only from Mexico. A small number of collection records place it along damp streams and in forests with fallen logs and rocks.

• 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.

• New Zealand Storm Petrel Fregetta maoriana

  This seabird is recorded in northern New Zealand waters, with the outer Hauraki Gulf identified as a core area of activity during the New Zealand summer.

• Horsfield's Leaf-nosed Bat Hipposideros larvatus

  Horsfield's leaf-nosed bat is a medium-sized bat with relatively large ears and a complex noseleaf. It flies through forest understory and roosts in caves and buildings.

• American bison Bos bison

  An American bison is a cattle relative with a prominent shoulder hump. It mainly eats grasses and lives in herds.

• Hoatzin Opisthocomus hoazin

  The Hoatzin has a long tail and crest; young birds have claws on their wings that help them grip branches.

• Javan Rhinoceros Rhinoceros sondaicus

  The Javan rhinoceros lives in Ujung Kulon National Park, Indonesia. Its gray skin has deep folds.

• Eurasian jay Garrulus glandarius

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

• Hamerkop Scopus umbretta

  The hamerkop is an African wetland bird whose flat crest makes its head look like a hammer. Pairs build a large, domed nest.

• Antillean Ghost-faced Bat Mormoops blainvillei

  This nocturnal, insect-eating bat roosts in caves. Its face has conspicuous folds of skin, and the species occurs on Caribbean islands.

• American black bear Ursus americanus

  A bear of North American forests. Many are black, while western populations also include brown and paler individuals.

• White-throated Jungle Flycatcher Rhinomyias albigularis

  It has an olive-brown head, pale eyebrow, white throat, broad brown breast band, and white belly. It occurs in the shaded understory of lowland and montane forest.

• Gilbert's Potoroo Potorous gilbertii

  Gilbert’s Potoroo is a nocturnal marsupial that digs with long claws and feeds mainly on fungi growing underground. By day it rests in a nest beneath sedges or bushes.

• Golden eagle Aquila chrysaetos

  A large eagle that soars on broad wings. In Britain it occurs in places such as the Scottish Highlands and islands.

• Pangani Longclaw Macronyx aurantiigula

  The Pangani Longclaw is 19–20 cm long. The male has a yellow-orange throat and black cheek stripes, and searches for prey while walking through grassland.

• Greater Cane Rat Thryonomys swinderianus

  The greater cane rat is a stocky African rodent with a rounded nose and short ears. It lives near marshes and riverbanks, feeding mainly on grasses and cane.

• Eurasian golden jackal Canis aureus

  The Eurasian golden jackal is a medium-sized canid found across a broad part of Eurasia.

• Ivory-backed Woodswallow Artamus monachus

  Its white back and body contrast with a brown-grey head and dark wings. It catches flying insects over forest edges and openings.

• Swamp wallaby Wallabia bicolor

  A dark-coated wallaby that shelters in dense forest undergrowth.

• Northern shoveler Spatula clypeata

  A duck with a broad, shovel-shaped bill. The large bill gathers tiny food items from the water.

• Brown-headed Paradise Kingfisher Tanysiptera danae

  The Brown-headed Paradise Kingfisher lives in moist forest in southeastern New Guinea. Adult males have a brown head and back, pink underparts, and long tail feathers.

• Schreibers's Long-fingered Bat Miniopterus schreibersii

  Recent DNA studies split the former broad complex. Miniopterus schreibersii is now treated as a species of Europe, North Africa, and part of the Near East; former sub-Saharan African, East Asian, and Australian populations are separate species.