Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,824 · Stories: 19,540

• Sandy Scops Owl Otus icterorhynchus

  

  The Sandy Scops Owl is a small owl with a white shoulder stripe and yellow eyes and bill. It is nocturnal in lowland evergreen forest and feeds on crickets and grasshoppers.

• Chinese Pipistrelle Hypsugo pulveratus

  The Chinese pipistrelle is a small bat recorded in China. A university species page describes its coat and forest records, along with examples of roosting in buildings.

• Western barn owl Tyto alba

  An owl with a heart-shaped face, seen over farmland and grassland in Britain.

• Pig-tailed Langur Simias concolor

  The pig-tailed langur lives in Indonesia’s Mentawai Islands. A study of wild groups on Siberut found that adult males were larger on average than females and that the three groups studied averaged about nine animals.

• Cuban Lizard-cuckoo Coccyzus merlini

  The Cuban Lizard-cuckoo has red skin around the eyes and a long tail. It lives in forest and scrub and eats lizards, frogs, and other small prey.

• Cream-coloured Giant Squirrel Ratufa affinis

  The cream-coloured giant squirrel is a large squirrel active by day in the upper canopy. It eats fruit and other plant matter, as well as insects.

• Red-fronted Barbet Tricholaema diademata

  This 16–17 cm barbet uses upland bushland and acacia woodland and eats fruit. Sound recordings include Lake Langano in Ethiopia.

• Honduran Yellow-shouldered Bat Sturnira hondurensis

  This bat is recorded from Mexico to northern Nicaragua. Its fur is dark gray to dark brown, with a paler underside. Many individuals, especially adult males, have reddish or yellow shoulder patches. It mainly eats fruit.

• Ethiopian Cisticola Cisticola lugubris

  This cisticola occurs in the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea, from marsh edges to montane heath and bracken.

• Oldfield Deermouse Peromyscus polionotus

  This nocturnal mouse lives in grassland and dunes in the southeastern United States. It digs underground burrows and stores seeds. Coastal animals tend to have paler coats than inland populations.

• Yellow-throated Fiji Whistler Pachycephala graeffii

  The Yellow-throated Fiji Whistler occurs on Fiji's islands. Male breast bands differ among island forms, and a tour account recorded very vocal birds on Taveuni.

• Large Japanese Field Mouse Apodemus speciosus

  The large Japanese field mouse has a reddish-brown back and a white underside. It moves over the ground and fallen logs at night and sometimes stores food underground.

• Malayan Night Heron Gorsachius melanolophus

  A forest-dwelling heron that breeds in India from May to August.

• Serengeti White-bearded Wildebeest Connochaetes mearnsi

  The Serengeti White-bearded Wildebeest, Connochaetes mearnsi, is restricted to the Serengeti–Mara ecosystem of southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. It is a small, dark form with a longer tail and a hanging mane. Most of the population moves seasonally in the dry season.

• Collared Laughingthrush Trochalopteron yersini

  This laughingthrush is listed in a Langbiang Biosphere Reserve guide for evergreen broadleaf forest. Its black hood, silvery-gray cheeks, and rusty chest and wings stand out.

• Silver-haired Bat Lasionycteris noctivagans

  The silver-haired bat is a North American bat with silver-white tips on black fur. It flies at night and may roost alone under loose bark or in tree cavities.

• Bare-eyed Thrush Turdus tephronotus

  This thrush lives in dry East African scrub and other open habitats. Gray, rufous, and white plumage is set off by an orange bill and bare skin around the eye.

• Dryad Monkey Chlorocebus dryas

  The Dryas monkey is a forest-dwelling primate known only from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Surveys in the Lomami region recorded it in areas that included dense understory and forest edges.

• Dusky Twinspot Euschistospiza cinereovinacea

  This African mountain bird has red on the rump and flanks, with white spots providing useful identification clues. The sources also describe a difference in tone between males and females.

• Unstriped ground squirrel Xerus (Xerus) rutilus

  A ground-dwelling squirrel without stripes, it lives in dry grasslands and scrub in East Africa. It forages by day and uses burrows for shelter.

• Blood Pheasant Ithaginis cruentus

  The Blood Pheasant is a plump, short-tailed pheasant whose plumage ranges from grey-olive to bright crimson. It searches for food in groups during the day.

• Davies’s Big-eared Bat Glyphonycteris daviesi

  Davies’s big-eared bat is a relatively large leaf-nosed bat from humid forests of Central and South America. It is the largest species in its genus, but its food habits are not well documented.

• Raja Ampat Pitohui Pitohui cerviniventris

  This bird lives in lowland forest on Indonesia's Raja Ampat Islands. Its island forms differ in the color of the underparts, and the species account reports fruit and insects in its diet.

• Savi's Pine Vole Microtus (Terricola) savii

  This vole has reddish-brown fur and a short tail. It makes underground galleries and lives in colonies in grassland and around fields.