Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,636 · Stories: 19,540

• Pallid Scops Owl Otus brucei

  

  The Pallid Scops Owl is a small owl of dry regions. A winter study in southern Israel recorded individuals roosting in acacias growing in desert washes.

• Pale Spear-nosed Bat Phyllostomus discolor

  The pale spear-nosed bat is a medium-sized, robust bat found in Central and South America. It often uses nectar and pollen, but its diet varies by place and season.

• Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophris

  A large seabird named for the dark line above its eye. It breeds on Antarctic and subantarctic islands and catches krill and fish near the sea surface.

• Black-footed Gray Langur Semnopithecus hypoleucos

  This langur lives in southern India. It is active by day and feeds mainly on leaves.

• Pectoral-patch Cisticola Cisticola brunnescens

  This small bird occurs in open, moist highland grassland in East Africa and feeds on invertebrates. A Tanzania field note records nonbreeding plumage and uncertainty about the subspecies.

• European Ground Squirrel Spermophilus citellus

  The European ground squirrel is a small ground squirrel that lives where grass is short. It comes out of underground burrows during the day.

• Bronze-tailed Starling Lamprotornis chalcurus

  An African starling with glossy green and blue plumage and a bronze-glossed purple tail. It eats insects and fruit.

• Little Indian Field Mouse Mus (Mus) booduga

  The little Indian field mouse is a small mouse with a gray-brown back and white underside. It is widely recorded in South Asia, but the central Myanmar population may represent a separate species.

• Green pheasant Phasianus versicolor

  A long-tailed bird of open woods, grassland and farmland in Japan. Males and females differ markedly in colour.

• Great Flying Fox Pteropus neohibernicus

  The great flying fox is a large fruit bat found on New Guinea and nearby islands. It is nocturnal and roosts in large groups high in trees.

• Grey-bellied Tesia Tesia cyaniventer

  This very small bird lives near the ground in grasses and shrubs of damp subtropical mountains. Its short tail and long legs are noticeable.

• Cleft-headed Juliomys Juliomys rimofrons

  This small rodent is known from southeastern Brazil. It has long ochre-brown fur and an orange rump; known specimens came from ground-level traplines.

• Ridgway's Rail Rallus obsoletus

  Ridgway's Rail is a gray and rusty rail of western North America. It probes muddy ground for invertebrates. Cornell's account lists California, Arizona, Nevada, and the western coast of Mexico; before 2014 it was grouped with Clapper Rail and related forms as one species.

• Hilgendorf's Tube-nosed Bat Murina hilgendorfi

  Hilgendorf's Tube-nosed Bat has a slightly projecting snout. A Kyoto Prefecture account says it usually hides in tree cavities by day, feeds on insects in the evening, and hibernates in winter.

• Yucatan Woodpecker Melanerpes pygmaeus

  This woodpecker occurs on the Yucatán Peninsula and nearby areas. It inhabits dry lowland scrub and deciduous forest and feeds on insects under bark.

• Salt's Dik-dik Madoqua saltiana

  This small antelope occurs in dry areas of Ethiopia, Somalia, and northeastern Sudan. Coat color varies among subspecies, and it browses mainly on acacia.

• White-chested Puffbird Malacoptila fusca

  This puffbird inhabits lowland evergreen forest in northwestern Amazonia and nearby regions. Its streaked plumage, small white collar, and orange bill base stand out; it feeds on spiders and caterpillars in the understory.

• Orange Nectar Bat Lonchophylla robusta

  The orange nectar bat is a medium-sized bat with an elongated muzzle and orange-brown back. It feeds on nectar and pollen in moist evergreen forests.

• Twite Linaria flavirostris

  A small, mostly seed-eating finch with brown plumage. In Britain and Ireland it breeds in northern uplands, and some birds move to southern coasts in winter.

• Chacma Baboon Papio ursinus

  A baboon of southern Africa's grasslands, savannas and wooded highlands.

• Mottled Duck Anas fulvigula

  This duck stays year-round in wetlands of North America. Its brown plumage includes a blue iridescent wing patch, and males have bright yellow bills.

• Black-tailed prairie dog Cynomys (Cynomys) ludovicianus

  A ground squirrel of North American grasslands. It digs underground tunnels and chambers and lives in colonies.

• Amethyst Brown Dove Phapitreron amethystinus

  The Amethyst Brown Dove is a Philippine forest endemic. A survey at Mount Makiling recorded it in the canopy and classified it as a fruit-eater.

• Brants's Whistling Rat Parotomys brantsii

  This rodent occurs in southern Africa. It is mainly active around dawn and dusk and uses consolidated sandy ground in sparsely vegetated semidesert. An 1849 description records a pale yellow-brown back finely flecked with dark brown and a pale belly.