Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,636 · Stories: 19,540

• Mount Kilimanjaro Vlei Rat Otomys zinki

  

  This vlei rat is recorded on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Its dark coat has ochre bands and black hair tips.

• Black Cuckoo Cuculus clamosus

  In southern Africa, the Black Cuckoo is a migrant that breeds in summer. It is often noticed by its call because the bird itself is hard to see. It lays its eggs in nests of other birds, including boubous.

• Hooded Leaf Monkey Semnopithecus johnii

  The Nilgiri langur lives in the Western Ghats of southern India and mainly eats leaves. Its coat is usually glossy black, with a yellowish-brown head.

• Tahiti Swiftlet Aerodramus leucophaeus

  This swiftlet occurs on Tahiti. The sexes look alike; the bird is dark with a grey rump. It catches insects in flight and nests colonially in wet, rocky, wooded valley canyons.

• Honduran White Bat Ectophylla alba

  This small bat's fur ranges from gray to white. It has a yellow leaf-shaped nose and spends the day in a shelter made from a folded leaf.

• Chinese Nuthatch Sitta villosa

  The Chinese Nuthatch is a small nuthatch with a blue-grey back and white brow. It lives in temperate forests, mostly in hills, and also eats pine seeds in winter.

• Daurian Ground Squirrel Spermophilus dauricus

  This ground squirrel has gray-russet fur and a pale tail tip. It lives in dry grasslands and plains in northeastern China, eastern Mongolia, and Russia's Transbaikalia region, among other records.

• Abdim's Stork Ciconia abdimii

  Abdim's Stork occurs in eastern and southern Africa. It eats insects, and some populations move south after breeding.

• Romanian Hamster Mesocricetus newtoni

  The Romanian hamster occurs along the Danube in northern Romania and Bulgaria. In examined animals, researchers recorded a grayish back, a dark line from the ears to the shoulders, and black stripes on the cheek pouches. It is active around dusk and at night, storing seeds and fruit in its burrow.

• Green-tailed Jacamar Galbula galbula

  The Green-tailed Jacamar is a forest bird that catches flying insects with its long, slender bill.

• Amber Bamboo Bat Tylonycteris fulvida

  This small bat was recorded in bamboo groves in Assam, India. It has golden-brown dorsal fur, a flattened head, and pale pads on its thumbs.

• Grey Treepie Dendrocitta formosae

  The Grey Treepie is a crow-family bird with gray, black, and chestnut plumage and a pale underside. Its appearance and Taiwan behavior here refer to the endemic subspecies D. f. formosae; the range describes the species as a whole.

• Peters’ Duiker Cephalophus callipygus

  Peters’ duiker is a small antelope of Central African forests. It is diurnal and is recorded in primary, old secondary, and logged forest.

• Mindanao Boobook Ninox spilocephala

  This boobook occurs on Mindanao. It has long ear-covert extensions, while breast barring and belly streaks vary among individuals. Researchers recorded long solo songs and shorter duets.

• Lesser Egyptian Gerbil Gerbillus (Gerbillus) gerbillus

  The lesser Egyptian gerbil has sandy to pale orange fur and a long, two-colored tail ending in a tuft. It lives in dry sandy places, where it spends the day in burrows and is active at night.

• Black-banded Plover Charadrius thoracicus

  This plover is restricted to Madagascar. A bold black band crosses its breast, and it searches for food on coastal mud and around saline lagoons.

• Northern Pig-tailed Macaque Macaca leonina

  The northern pig-tailed macaque is now treated as a species distinct from the southern pig-tailed macaque. A Thai comparison found differences between the northern and southern forms in crown hair, facial markings, coat, and tail.

• St. Lucia Thrasher Ramphocinclus sanctaeluciae

  The St. Lucia Thrasher occurs only on Saint Lucia. It searches for food among leaf litter in lowland and coastal dry forest.

• Spectral Bat Vampyrum spectrum

  A large carnivorous bat of tropical forests in Central America and northern South America.

• Azure Tit Cyanistes cyanus

  It has a white head, a dark line through the eye, and blue, grey and white plumage. A European account describes it as favoring bushes near fresh water.

• Forest Giant Squirrel Protoxerus (Protoxerus) stangeri

  This forest squirrel has a longer tail than head-and-body length in the Gabon record. The CNRS account says it often comes to the ground and eats insects, palm nuts, and leaves.

• Grey-bellied Wren-Babbler Spelaeornis reptatus

  Males have a white throat that extends to the center of the belly, while females are more rufous. The species inhabits montane forest from northeastern India through Myanmar and western Thailand to Yunnan, China, where it searches for insects in dense undergrowth.

• Steppe Lemming Lagurus lagurus

  The steppe lemming is a small rodent that eats grasses and herbs in Eurasian grasslands and uses burrows in the ground. A dark stripe runs down the middle of its back.

• Green Oriole Oriolus flavocinctus

  The Green Oriole has yellow-green plumage and reddish-brown eyes. It occurs across northern Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, and builds a cup-shaped nest high in the canopy.