Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,636 · Stories: 19,540

• Taiwanese Mole Shrew Anourosorex yamashinai

  

  The Taiwanese mole shrew has dark, short fur and a very short tail. It uses forest floors and natural cavities underground in middle- and high-elevation forests of Taiwan.

• Pavonine Quetzal Pharomachrus pavoninus

  The Pavonine Quetzal lives in the upper canopy of Amazonian forest. Adult males have a bill with an orange-red base and yellow tip, while much of the species' ecology remains poorly known.

• West Javan Langur Trachypithecus mauritius

  A monkey restricted to forests of western Java. It eats leaves and shoots and spends much of the day resting.

• Painted Finch Emblema pictum

  A small finch with a red face and white-spotted flanks, living in arid inland Australia. A 2007 field report also recorded nesting-related observations farther east in New South Wales.

• Cavendish's Dik-dik Madoqua cavendishi

  The current Mammal Diversity Database account places this dik-dik in eastern Uganda, southwestern Kenya, and northwestern Tanzania. A study at Mpala in central Kenya was conducted in semi-arid Acacia bushland.

• Red-hooded Tanager Piranga rubriceps

  The Red-hooded Tanager contrasts a red head and breast with a yellow body in the Andes. Females have less red than males, and the birds forage in pairs or small groups.

• Little Woolly Mouse Opossum Marmosa (Micoureus) phaea

  It has a brown back, a cream-to-orange underside, and white spots at the tip of its tail. The appearance comes from one specimen report; recent taxonomic sources confirm specimens from the foothills of southwestern Colombia.

• Bounty Shag Leucocarbo ranfurlyi

  This seabird breeds only on New Zealand’s Bounty Islands. Adults are black with a blue sheen above and white below, and nest in colonies on cliff ledges.

• Washington Ground Squirrel Urocitellus washingtoni

  The Washington ground squirrel lives in grasslands from eastern Washington to north-central Oregon. It has short legs and rounded ears, and spends the long winter underground.

• Pygmy Flowerpecker Dicaeum pygmaeum

  This small flowerpecker is endemic to the Philippines. Males and females have different plumage.

• Olive-backed Pocket Mouse Perognathus fasciatus

  This small pocket mouse carries seeds in cheek pouches. It comes above ground at night and spends the day in a soil burrow.

• African Pied Hornbill Lophoceros fasciatus

  The African Pied Hornbill lives in forests and wooded farmland in central Africa. It eats fruit and small animals, often feeding high in trees.

• Eastern grey kangaroo Macropus giganteus

  A kangaroo of eastern Australian woodland and grassland that moves by hopping on its hind legs.

• Rufous-tailed Fantail Rhipidura phoenicura

  It has a gray head and back, a white eyebrow, and orange-chestnut belly and tail feathers. Endemic to Java's moist mountain forests, it is active by day and catches insects and other invertebrates in the air.

• Little Yellow-shouldered Bat Sturnira lilium

  A fruit-eating bat studied in Brazil’s montane Atlantic Forest. Its back fur ranges from dark gray to reddish brown, with a paler underside; a study in Brazil's montane Atlantic Forest found a fruit-only diet, mostly Solanaceae.

• Eastern Curlew Numenius madagascariensis

  A large shorebird that breeds in the Northern Hemisphere and passes through Japan during migration. It uses its long bill to search for food on tidal flats.

• Bonin flying fox Pteropus pselaphon

  A large fruit-eating bat native only to the Ogasawara Islands.

• Lilac-breasted roller Coracias caudatus

  A colourful bird of African savannas and open woodland, often seen surveying its surroundings from high branches.

• Central American Lowland Forest Cottontail Sylvilagus gabbi

  Sylvilagus gabbi is a cottontail of Central American lowland tropical forest. The nominate subspecies, S. g. gabbi, is described as brown with dark and pale bands and an orange nape.

• Dusky Indigobird Vidua funerea

  This brood-parasitic finch occurs in southeastern Africa. Males are known to mimic the song of their host, the African Firefinch.

• Wolverine Gulo gulo

  A mustelid of cold northern regions, with a robust body, a large head and small rounded ears.

• Dusky Megapode Megapodius freycinet

  The Dusky Megapode is a dark, ground-dwelling bird that builds a mound and buries its eggs in it. Body size varies greatly among islands, and details of its breeding biology and diet remain poorly known.

• Gray Red-backed Vole Myodes rufocanus

  This vole occurs across northern Eurasia. It has a reddish-brown back and gray sides; in northern Europe it is common in conifer forest and also lives in scrub and meadows.

• African Reed Warbler Acrocephalus baeticatus

  This small warbler lives in reedbeds and grassy vegetation near water in Africa and feeds on insects. Sources differ on whether baeticatus is treated as a separate African Reed Warbler species or as a subspecies of Common Reed Warbler.