Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,636 · Stories: 19,540

• Bornean Banded Pitta Hydrornis schwaneri

  

  This pitta is endemic to Borneo. Adult males show a yellow eyebrow, blue rump and tail, and a blue belly patch. It is now treated separately from related forms once grouped with it.

• Sand Gazelle Gazella marica

  This gazelle lives in deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. It uses sand dunes and coastal flats and avoids steep, rocky ground. Its coat is pale fawn, and the facial markings are faint.

• Bismarck Kingfisher Ceyx websteri

  This rarely recorded kingfisher lives along lowland rivers and forest streams in the Bismarck Archipelago.

• Striped Yellow-eared Bat Vampyriscus nymphaea

  This bat is recorded mainly from Colombia’s Pacific region. Its dorsal stripe may be faint, while four white facial lines and yellow ear margins are conspicuous.

• Huon Bowerbird Amblyornis germanus

  This bird lives in montane forest on the Huon Peninsula. Males have an orange crest and decorate stick bowers with colored objects; females lack the orange crest.

• Columbia Plateau Pocket Mouse Perognathus parvus

  The Columbia Plateau pocket mouse is a small North American rodent that carries seeds in fur-lined cheek pouches. Its back is pinkish buff with a dark overlay, and its tail is long and bicolored.

• European Storm Petrel Hydrobates pelagicus

  The European Storm Petrel is a small, dark seabird that spends much of its time at sea. In the breeding season it returns to island burrows, including in Scotland.

• Robinson's Banded Langur Presbytis robinsoni

  This langur ranges from the northern Malay Peninsula through southern Thailand to Myanmar. Some sources treat it as a subspecies of P. femoralis, while a 2020 genetic study and MDD support species-level recognition.

• Baird's Trogon Trogon bairdii

  A trogon of forests from Costa Rica's Pacific slope to western Panama, the male stands out with a red belly and blue facial skin.

• Palmer's Chipmunk Tamias (Neotamias) palmeri

  This chipmunk is restricted to the Spring Mountains of Nevada. It is often found in high-elevation conifer forests and forages on canyon floors and rocky outcrops.

• Clicking Shrike-Babbler Pteruthius intermedius

  The Clicking Shrike-Babbler occurs in southern China and mainland Southeast Asia. The bird account treats Pteruthius intermedius separately; it was formerly included in Chestnut-fronted Shrike-Babbler.

• Anderson's Four-eyed Opossum Philander andersoni

  This opossum occurs in northwestern South America. It uses lowland primary and secondary forests and riparian forest, and is mostly terrestrial.

• Brandt's Cormorant Urile penicillatus

  This skilled diver pursues fish in the Pacific waters of North America. In breeding plumage it shows a blue throat patch and wispy white head feathers.

• Rock Karroo Rat Myotomys sloggetti

  Myotomys sloggetti lives in high-altitude parts of South Africa and Lesotho. It has a rounded body, short legs and tail, and dense fur. A museum account describes it as strictly diurnal and sun-basking.

• Roseate spoonbill Platalea ajaja

  A pink waterbird with a large spoon-shaped bill.

• Madagascan Straw-colored Fruit Bat Eidolon dupreanum

  The Madagascan Straw-colored Fruit Bat is endemic to Madagascar. A diet study in the east found that it ate mainly fruit and also used eucalyptus flowers.

• African Firefinch Lagonosticta rubricata

  It is described with dark wine-red plumage, a grayish-red crown, and a dark bluish, cone-shaped bill.

• Marbled Polecat Vormela peregusna

  A mustelid found from southeastern Europe through parts of the Middle East and Asia, including grassland and semidesert.

• 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.

• Southern Water Vole Arvicola sapidus

  The southern water vole is a semi-aquatic rodent. It eats plants along riverbanks and digs burrows in soft, vegetated banks.

• Blue-headed Hummingbird Riccordia bicolor

  Males have blue-violet on the head and throat while females have green upperparts and grey-white underparts; the species uses mountain wet forest on Dominica and Martinique.

• Rufous Hare Wallaby Lagorchestes hirsutus

  This small wallaby has soft, long fur with a reddish tinge. Its natural wild populations remain in dry scrub on islands off Western Australia.

• Southern Grey-headed Sparrow Passer diffusus

  This sparrow appears in wooded country, farmland, and gardens. It searches for food on the ground and may flock with other seed-eating birds.

• Broom Hare Lepus castroviejoi

  This hare lives in the Cantabrian Mountains. Its back is yellow-brown and its underside is white; it rests in scrub by day and feeds mainly on grass at night.