Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,038 · Stories: 19,488

• Eurasian elk Alces alces

  

  A Eurasian elk is a deer with long legs and a large muzzle. It uses forests and waterside habitats in places such as northern Europe.

• Desert Spotted Skunk Spilogale leucoparia

  

  This skunk has black and white back stripes of nearly equal width in the Texas account. Most Texas capture records are from rocky bluffs, cliffs, or brush-lined canyon streams.

• Cape Penduline Tit Anthoscopus minutus

  

  This small bird lives in dry scrub and other habitats in southern Africa. Its black-and-white forehead pattern and pale-yellow belly help identify it.

• Pine Marten Martes martes

  

  A forest-dwelling marten from Europe that climbs well.

• Gambian Rat Cricetomys gambianus

  

  A rat with large cheek pouches for carrying food, it rests in burrows or hollow trees by day and searches for food at night.

• Coppery Emerald Chlorostilbon russatus

  

  This small hummingbird occurs in northern Colombia and western Venezuela. The male is golden green with coppery tones, while the female has gray underparts; it feeds in scrub and forest edges.

• Bryde's whale Balaenoptera edeni

  NOAA distinguishes an Eden's whale form within Balaenoptera edeni that is smaller and more coastal.

• Red Viscacha Rat Tympanoctomys barrerae

  The red viscacha rat burrows in dune belts around saline lakes and feeds on salt-tolerant plants. It has a yellow-brown back, white underside, and long, bicolored tail.

• New Zealand Kaka Nestor meridionalis

  The New Zealand Kaka is a forest parrot that searches for food in trees.

• Blackbuck Antilope cervicapra

  A grassland antelope whose males become darker with age.

• Smoky Pocket Gopher Cratogeomys fumosus

  The smoky pocket gopher is a burrowing rodent of the southern Mexican Plateau, where volcanic soils occur. Its large foreclaws help it dig underground.

• Maroon-backed Accentor Prunella immaculata

  The Maroon-backed Accentor ranges from the eastern Himalayas to southern China. It has a dark gray head and chestnut wings and keeps to dense cover.

• Cougar Puma concolor

  A large cat of the Americas, with a slender body, a long tail and a tawny to greyish-brown adult coat.

• Sunda Colugo Galeopterus variegatus

  A mammal of Southeast Asian forests that glides between trees using skin stretched between its limbs.

• Shoebill Balaeniceps rex

  A bird of African wetlands with a broad, shoe-shaped bill.

• Arctic fox Vulpes lagopus

  A fox of cold Arctic regions, protected by thick fur that also covers its feet in winter.

• Thumbless Bat Furipterus horrens

  This bat has a very small thumb enclosed by the wing membrane. It roosts in cave colonies and catches moths and other insects at night.

• Buzzing Flowerpecker Dicaeum hypoleucum

  This small flowerpecker uses forests and scrub. Its dark upperparts, pale underparts, and slender, slightly curved bill help distinguish it.

• False killer whale Pseudorca crassidens

  A dark, slender small whale that hunts fish and squid in warm seas.

• Atlantic Humpback Dolphin Sousa teuszii

  The Atlantic humpback dolphin lives in shallow coastal waters of western Africa. Its grey body has a distinct hump beneath the dorsal fin and a short, rounded beak.

• White-winged Potoo Nyctibius leucopterus

  The White-winged Potoo is marked by large white shoulder patches and a small build.

• Red deer Cervus elaphus

  Red deer are large deer native to Britain. In the New Forest, males call during the autumn rut.

• Recife Broad-nosed Bat Platyrrhinus recifinus

  This leaf-nosed fruit bat is recorded in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. It has contrasting pale stripes on the back and face, and a field report documented leaf tents used as daytime roosts in one forest fragment.

• Creamy-bellied Antwren Herpsilochmus motacilloides

  This small antwren lives in humid montane forest on the eastern Andean slope. Males have a black cap and broad white eyebrow, and the species is reported at 900–2,100 m.